Egypt Exploration Fund [Hrsg.]: Archaeological report: comprising the work of the Egypt Exploration Fund and the progress of egyptology during the year ... (1903-1904)

1G

Egypt Explobation Fund.

p. 7 of last year's Keport. The ostraka, which mainly belong to the
fourth or fifth century, number seventy (twenty at Cairo); twenty-three of
these were found together, and contain orders for payment of meat to
various military officials in the fourth century. We give the text of one
example :—/Jo? 'AWaoVw a^oXa<TTiKa> /rpe'tu? XtVpn? Tecrcrapai<; (I. jeaaapas,)
Kal ovvyia Svo Kal kv\1&lov (I. KoiXiSioi*). The remaining twenty-two
follow the same formula, among the recipients being toi? i^eirrmpcri (i.e. the
exeeptores), tok cf>povp,evTapioL<;, rot? SovKrjvapioLs (twice), MovKtavoi erepio
Sov/crjvapi'ay, roi<; KecrcrooTTaplot'; (twice ; the co is doubtful in both cases),
avawpi (or avaicapL: a proper name?), toU p-iraTcopcn, (the metatpres),
TrpivKiiTL (twice), /3or)6{cZ) 7rp(pKLTr(o<;), /c\'i]Scoviq> k6/mito<s, tc3 avvovpuipa {a
numero?), tw cucopievTavrjaLui (a perversion of a commentariis or commen-
tariensis?), tw avv/cadeSpo), p-eSei/xcoPi, (a proper name or connected with
medimna ?) vpa^LfUfi, Four pounds of meat is the usual allowance, but
eight are given to the princeps, and the extras include a ttoSokvXiop
(i.e. TT'.&oKo'Ckiov), arepvov and eimv, sometimes spelled eiriv (i.e. efydlovl).
The other ostraka are chiefly receipts or accounts, of which three may be
mentioned. The first is a list of persons from the villages of xlrcbfi9i<;,
IlaKepKT], and %kco, in the Oxyrbynchite nome, who supplied Bea(fMii),
presumably of hay (third century). The second is an account of colours
(fourth century), the text being Zcnnreiplou oivc(lai) i, yXwpwv fiva a,
Xev/cov 6vic(tab) e, yaXp.ivov (= yakfidvov ?) ovic(jai) e, fieXavov bvic{iai) e,
kokklvov ovK.{iai) i, 7Top(pvpov (amount omitted), poBluov \afxirpuv (?) e.
The third is a list of payments of wine to various officials (fifth century),
and begins Kovpa-copat, 8 kplS(iou) (i.e. TerpaicpiSiop?) a (tfp,icrv) : other
recipients are fipeKopai (praecursores ?), Srj/xioiq, ic\aovi.>cov\ap(loi<;), novp-
onrepyop (?) (the air and y are doubtful), and Mrjva Kal 'IaaK /3o?j0(ot?)
aiyyov\ap{lov), and the amount is uniformly 1 (reTpajieviB^iov).

The miscellaneous antiquities include several which are of greater value
than those found on previous occasions at Oxyrhynchus: e.g. a gold
bracelet with four heads for clasps (third century), a diadem of gold foil
from a tomb in one of the mounds (about the sixth century), and a
remarkable wooden medallion of a male bust, probably an early Eoman
copy of an older work of art, which were all three taken by the Cairo
Museum; also a small finely-worked marble head of Venus (early Eoman
period), another larger head of Venus, and several admirable specimens of
fused mosaic glass for inlaying, the designs being chiefly floral. Besides
the usual late Ptolemaic and Eoman billon or copper coins, leaden
tokens, dice, beads, amulets, reed pens, brushes, combs, lamps, terracottas
(Harpocrates, Venus, Isis and Horus, facade of a temple, fish-tailed