Get Social With Us

4CARE-ARTEFACTS

ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS

Artefact ID162
TM IDTM 129873
Findspot (DEChriM ID)58   (Dayr al-ʿIẓām)
ClassTextual
MaterialPapyrus
Writing mediumSheet/roll
Text contentDocumentary
LanguageGreek
Archive/DossierArchive
Description

Gonis 2008: 77-80, no. 2; P.Misc. inv. II 98a + I 134a: Fragmentary letter to Apa John.

The letter refers to a praeses who may be due to meet with Apa John; the latter was apparently asked to raise an issue with the governor involving his correspondent, perhaps regarding a petition. The sender requests to be remembered in Apa John's holy prayers.

Recto: the text is written along the fibres. Verso: docket, along the fibres.

The Apa John of this archive was identified with the famous John of Lykopolis known by literary sources by Zuckerman 1995. Most of the Greek and Coptic letters of this archive are 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 editor notes here (l. 1-2n) the early papyrological attestation of the epithet theophilestatos used for an ecclesiastic (l. 2: "to the most God-loving Apa Ioannes"), which becomes common from the 5th c.

Selection criteriaMention of Christian individuals/communities, Christian terms/formulas/concepts, Nomina sacra
Date from375
Date to399
Dating criteria

Palaeography and archive connection (Gonis 2008: 69-72)

Absolute/relative dateRelative 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

Oxford, Sackler Library, Papyrology Rooms EES P. Misc. inv. I 134 a + EES P. Misc. inv. II 98 a

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editio princeps
• Gonis, Nikolaos. 2008. “Further Letters from the Archive of Apa Ioannes.” Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 45, 69-85: 77-80, no. 2

Additional bibliography
• Choat, Malcolm. 2017. In Writing and Communication in Early Monasticism ed. Malcolm Choat & Maria Chiara Giorda. Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity 9. Leiden-Boston, 37-40.
• Van der Vliet, Jacques. 2015. “Snippets from the Past: Two ancient sites in the Asyut Region: Dayr al-Gabrawi and Dayr al-’Izam.” In Christianity and Monasticism in Middle Egypt, ed. Gawdat Gabra and Hany Takla. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 161-168.
• Van Minnen, Peter. 1994. “The Roots of Egyptian Christianity.” Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete 41, 71-85.
• Zuckerman, Constantine. 1995. "The Hapless Recruit Psois and the Mighty Anchorite, Apa John." Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 32, 183-194.

Authors
Valérie Schram, 2021
Suggested citation
Valérie Schram, 2021, "Artefact ID 162", 4CARE database - Fourth-Century Christian Archaeological Record of Egypt, https://4care-skos.mf.no/artefacts/162
Gallery