| Artefact ID | 148 |
| TM ID | TM 33467 |
| Findspot (DEChriM ID) | 58 (Dayr al-ʿIẓām) | Class | Textual |
| Material | Papyrus |
| Writing medium | Sheet/roll |
| Text content | Documentary |
| Language | Greek |
| Archive/Dossier | Archive |
| Description | P.Herm. 8: Letter to Apa John. A certain Abraham sends a carefully written letter to Apa John, asking him to pray for him and his family so that he would be relieved from unspecified troubles. Recto: written along the fibres. Verso: address, written along the fibres. Use of nomina sacra. P.Herm. 8 is one of many Greek and Coptic letters addressed by monks, clerics, soldiers, state officials and individuals to Apa John, so that he would intercede in their favour in dealings with the authorities or pray for them. The anchorite of this archive was identified with the famous John of Lycopolis known by literary sources by Zuckerman 1995. The phraseology here gives good evidence of the spiritual power ascribed to the anchorite: "May God Almighty preserve you for a long time for us sinners, so that through your most holy prayers we may be saved throughout our life" (Van Minnen 1994: 82-84). |
| Selection criteria | Mention of Christian individuals/communities, Christian terms/formulas/concepts, Nomina sacra |
| Date from | 375 |
| Date to | 400 |
| Dating criteria | Palaeography and archive connection |
| Absolute/relative date | Relative date |
| Archaeological context | According to Constantine Zuckerman's reconstruction, the Apa John’s letters were presumably found in September 1897, during the excavations of Farag Ismael and Yassa Tadros on the mountain of Siout (Lykopolis), in the ruins of Dayr al-'Azam, the site of the monastery of John of Lycopolis. Yet they never reached the museum in Gizeh – like the other objects unearthed during these excavations – and must have ended on the market, where they were bought soon after the excavations (Zuckerman 1995: 191-192; Van Minnen 1994: 80-82, Gonis 2008: 69-72). Although not proven, this attractive hypothesis is generally accepted by scholars (see discussion in Van der Vliet 2015: 166-167, and some reservations in Choat 2017: 37-40). |
| Accession number | Manchester, John Rylands Library, P.Herm. 8
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ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS
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