Egypt Exploration Fund [Editor]: Archaeological report: comprising the work of the Egypt Exploration Fund and the progress of egyptology during the year ... (1893-1894)

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Progress op Egyptology.

this Report may have the opportunity of recording further progress
in this direction in future years. One document deserves separate
mention, on account of the peculiar interest attaching to it, namely,
the libellus. or affidavit of having performed the required sacrifices in
the presence of the commissioners appointed for the purpose, by an old
man suspected of being a Christian in the time of the Decian persecution.
This was discovered and published by Dr. _Krebs ;19 and another
document of the same kind was Subsequently found among the Rainer
papyri by Dr. HLe&sely.20

What the Berlin papyri have done for the Roman province, the Petrie
papyri have, to some extent, done for Ptolemaic "Egypt. The second
part of Prof. Mahaffy's publication has not the same amount of literary
interest or palasographical novelty as the first, but it is fuller in the
details of internal administration. The chief points have been brought
out in the editor's commentary with all Prof. Mahaffy's freshness and
originality ; and there is reason to hope that he may before long work
up the material which he has .been the first to decipher into a formal
history of Ptolemaic Egypt. For such a history there is certainly
room; and it is good news that Prof. Flinders Petrie's projected
History of Egypt is to include volumes on the Ptolemaic and Roman
periods.

Of the British Museum Catalogue the present writer can hardly be ex-
pected to speak at length. Except for some long money-accounts, both
public and private, of the first and second centuries, most of the papyri
transcribed in it belong to the Ptolemaic and Byzantine periods. The
former include the documents found long ago in the Serapeum at Mem-
phis and originally published by Forshall ; the latter, a number of legal
deeds, wills, and similar papers. One considerable section of the volume
consists of magical papyri, another of horoscopes. The texts are
accompanied by introductions and brief comments, with detailed in-
dices. In the general introduction an attempt is made to sketch the
historical palaeography of papyri, with reference to the volume of
facsimiles which accompanies the Catalogue. Since most of the material
for such a sketch is new, this is to some extent a breaking of fresh
ground.

Reference was made in last year's Report to the Guide to the Rainer
Papyri, issued by the Director, Prof. Karabacek, with the assistance of
his colleagues, Prof. Krall and Dr. Wessely. That issue, was, however,
only provisional, and appeared as a compliment to the London Oriental
Congress of 1892. The formal publication has only taken place within