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ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS

Artefact ID1236
TM IDTM 62056
Findspot (DEChriM ID)-   ()
ClassTextual
MaterialPapyrus
Writing mediumCodex
Text contentSubliterary
LanguageGreek, Coptic
Description

MPER NS IV 24; SB XXVIII 17151: Miniature school book

Complete notebook made of 4 double papyrus sheets of bad quality, 5 x 9.5 cm, written in 3 different hands.

Description from Cribiore 1996, no. 403: The first 5 pages are numbered in order (from alpha to epsilon) by the first hand, which writes Psalm 32. 9-15 on pages 1-8. Then, turning the booklet around, a 2nd hand writes what could be a citation from the Bible in Coptic on page 16. A 3rd hand writes pages 15-10: an alphabet and exercises on the alphabet consisting of writing the letters backwards. This hand also starts copying Ps. 32 on the bottom part of page 5 (lines 4-6) and on the empty page 9, and draws a figure on page 10.
Long quasi-paragraphoi mark some kind of pause. There are some line fillers or a word may be enlarged to fill the space.

Hand 1: "Evolving," in fairly even capitals of varying size, more careful in the first pages.

Hand 3: "Zero-grade," uncertain about the shape of some letters. Spidery and multistroke often ligatures some letters, of which certain parts are elongated even in the alphabet.

Carlig 2020:278 notes the presence of staurograms ("chrisms" in Cribiore 1996) in the upper left margin of every page, in ekthesis [sometimes only simple cross]. Use of nomina sacra contracted with supralinear stroke.

Selection criteriaChristian symbols/gestures/isopsephy, Nomina sacra, Biblical quote or paraphrase, Coptic language
Date from300
Date to499
Dating criteria

P. Sanz suggested a date in 4/5th c. which was also accepted by Harrauer and Morelli 2002:99. Carlig 2020 suggested to push the date later considering the use of the staurograms (Carlig 2020: 278).

Absolute/relative dateRelative date
Archaeological context

Arsinoites

Accession number

Vienna, Nationalbibliothek G 29274

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editiones principes

Harrauer, Hermann and Morelli, Federico. 2002. "Eine bisher unerkannte mathematische Aufgabe." Tyche 17, p. 99-101 (mathematical exercise). 

• Sanz, Peter. 1946. Mitteilungen aus der Papyrussammlung der österreichischen Nationalbibliothek in Wien, Neue Serie IV, Griechische literarische Papyri christlichen Inhalts I (Biblica, Väterschriften und Verwandtes). Vienna, no. 24.

Additional bibliography

• Brashear, William. 1983. "Lesefrüchte." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 50, 97-107 (esp. 98).

• Carlig, Nathan. 2020. "Les symboles chrétiens dans les papyrus littéraires et documentaires grecs". In Signes dans les textes Continuités et ruptures des pratiques scribales en Égypte pharaonique, gréco-romaine et byzantine, ed. N. Carlig, G. Lescuyer,  A. Motte and N. Sojic. Liege, 271- 281.

• Cribiore, Raffaella. 1996. Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt (ASP 36), New Haven et al., no. 403 and pl. 75.

• Van Haelst, Joseph. 1976. Catalogue des papyrus littéraires juifs et chrétiens, Paris, no. 136 descr.

Authors
Valérie Schram, 2021
Suggested citation
Valérie Schram, 2021, "Artefact ID 1236", 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/artefacts/1236
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