DOI Artikel:
Grenfell, Bernard P.: Egypt Exploration Fund: Oxyrhynchus and its Papyri
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11503#0022
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Egypt Exploration Fund.
More interesting than the coins are a large number of lead tokens of
local manufacture, stamped with various designs. The object of these
tokens, similar examples of which exist in the British Museum, is un-
certain. It has been conjectured that they were used as theatre tickets.
Many inscribed amphorae and clay jar-stoppers were found, most of
them Byzantine, and a few wooden tablets and a charm written on
lead. A few small glass bottles, wrapped up in cloth and sealed, had
escaped being broken, as had some terra-cotta figures and glazed amulets.
Judging by the number of dice found, the Oxyrhynchites seem to have
been inveterate gamblers. Bronze, ivory, and bone pins, and other
toilet instruments, such as mirrors, were common, as well as bronze and
iron knives, chisels and other tools, and of course beads, pens, and lamps,
and wooden objects of various kinds.
At the end of March we were joined by Mr. H. V. Geere, who had
been assisting Professor Petrie, and Mr. J. E. Quibell paid us a visit on
his way to Cairo, after finishing his work at El Kab. Both these
gentlemen gave us much assistance in making boxes for the anticas, and
completing the survey of the site. We concluded the excavations on April
15th, and despatched the packing-cases, of which the papyri filled twenty-
five, to Cairo. One hundred and fifty of the largest and best preserved
rolls, and some specimens of the miscellaneous anticas, were retained for
the Gizeh Museum. The rest of the collection reached England at the
beginning of June. As our first task was to publish, the " Logia"
fragment, we have not yet had time to unroll, much less to examine
in detail, more than about an eighth part of the whole. We can therefore
only give a quite general account of it, based for the most part on my
impressions at the time cf discovery, and on Mr. Hunt's rough examina-
tion of the papyri as he packed them away in the tin boxes.
The papyri range in date from the Boman conquest of Egypt to the
tenth century, when papyrus gave way as a writing material to paper.
We made great efforts to find Ptolemaic papyri, especially in the
mounds where first century a.d. documents were found, but without
success. The records of Ptolemaic Oxyrhynchus seem to have dis-
appeared as completely as the Ptolemaic remains of Hermopolis, Arsinoe,
and the other Faiyum towns, which have produced so many papyri of the
Boman and Byzantine periods. In fact, nearly all Ptolemaic papyri
which have not been found in tombs have come from Memphis, ThebeSj
or Crocodilopolis of the Thebaid (near Gebelen), sites which, after the
Ptolemies, either were not inhabited or dwindled into unimportance. In
the case of the other sites, which reached their greatest extent and summit
Egypt Exploration Fund.
More interesting than the coins are a large number of lead tokens of
local manufacture, stamped with various designs. The object of these
tokens, similar examples of which exist in the British Museum, is un-
certain. It has been conjectured that they were used as theatre tickets.
Many inscribed amphorae and clay jar-stoppers were found, most of
them Byzantine, and a few wooden tablets and a charm written on
lead. A few small glass bottles, wrapped up in cloth and sealed, had
escaped being broken, as had some terra-cotta figures and glazed amulets.
Judging by the number of dice found, the Oxyrhynchites seem to have
been inveterate gamblers. Bronze, ivory, and bone pins, and other
toilet instruments, such as mirrors, were common, as well as bronze and
iron knives, chisels and other tools, and of course beads, pens, and lamps,
and wooden objects of various kinds.
At the end of March we were joined by Mr. H. V. Geere, who had
been assisting Professor Petrie, and Mr. J. E. Quibell paid us a visit on
his way to Cairo, after finishing his work at El Kab. Both these
gentlemen gave us much assistance in making boxes for the anticas, and
completing the survey of the site. We concluded the excavations on April
15th, and despatched the packing-cases, of which the papyri filled twenty-
five, to Cairo. One hundred and fifty of the largest and best preserved
rolls, and some specimens of the miscellaneous anticas, were retained for
the Gizeh Museum. The rest of the collection reached England at the
beginning of June. As our first task was to publish, the " Logia"
fragment, we have not yet had time to unroll, much less to examine
in detail, more than about an eighth part of the whole. We can therefore
only give a quite general account of it, based for the most part on my
impressions at the time cf discovery, and on Mr. Hunt's rough examina-
tion of the papyri as he packed them away in the tin boxes.
The papyri range in date from the Boman conquest of Egypt to the
tenth century, when papyrus gave way as a writing material to paper.
We made great efforts to find Ptolemaic papyri, especially in the
mounds where first century a.d. documents were found, but without
success. The records of Ptolemaic Oxyrhynchus seem to have dis-
appeared as completely as the Ptolemaic remains of Hermopolis, Arsinoe,
and the other Faiyum towns, which have produced so many papyri of the
Boman and Byzantine periods. In fact, nearly all Ptolemaic papyri
which have not been found in tombs have come from Memphis, ThebeSj
or Crocodilopolis of the Thebaid (near Gebelen), sites which, after the
Ptolemies, either were not inhabited or dwindled into unimportance. In
the case of the other sites, which reached their greatest extent and summit