DOI Artikel:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology: graeco-roman Egypt, 1907-8
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12423#0059
Geaeco-Eoman Egypt.
49
columns of a treatise on surgery, which has been transcribed by Prof.
Nicole and annotated by Prof. Ilberg.7 It deals with an operation on
the head for the relief of impaired eye-sight, which is stated still to be in
use in the Soudan.
School-books cannot be classed as precisely literary, but they are the
handmaids of literature, and mention may therefore be made here of an
article by Mr. J. Gr. Milne on the fragments of such books which have
come to us from the sands of Egypt.8 They range from exercises in
spelling, writing and arithmetic to passages of literature, of which the best
known is the fragment of Callimachus' Hecale at Vienna. Those hitherto
known have consisted mainly of tablets, waxed or whitened, on which in
some cases pupils and masters wrote their exercises, while in others the
boards were hung up in the schoolroom for use (presumably) in reading
and recitation lessons. Mr. Milne's texts, however, are derived from
ostraca, obtained in the neighbourhood of Karnak, showing that the
fondness for this material in Upper Egypt, which was already well known
in regard to tax-receipts and similar documents, extended also to school-
books.
The non-literary publications of the year include no such large
volumes as were described last year, but there are three collections of texts
of some importance. The second part of the Strassburg papyri9 contains
31 texts, competently edited by Dr. Preisigke, and provided with eight
photographic facsimiles and twenty blocks in the text. The documents
are much of the usual kind,—census returns, tax-receipts, contracts,
letters, etc., from the second to the sixth century, and a set of six bonds
for the supply of meat in Antinoopolis in the year 566. The longest text
(no. 52) is a loan secured by a mortgage, of the year 151; among the
others may be mentioned a census-declaration (no. 42) of the year 310,
which shows that by that date the old formula of the /car oUlav
dwoyparfii'i, of which we have evidence up to a.d. 258, had been abandoned.
The official to whom the return is addressed is the censitor Heptanomiae,
probably a creation of the reforms of Diocletian ; his existence is first
known in the year 298. Two little papyrus rolls (39 A and B), which
Preisigke regards as magical documents of the Arabic period, are apparently
modern fabrications of a somewhat familiar type. Another interesting
document (no. 40) is one of the year 569, in which a free citizen binds
himself as a slave for four years on fixed conditions as to pay and
allowances.
The Elephantine papyri, found by 0. Eubensohn during his excavations
in February, 1906, which likewise produced the famous Aramaic documents
e
49
columns of a treatise on surgery, which has been transcribed by Prof.
Nicole and annotated by Prof. Ilberg.7 It deals with an operation on
the head for the relief of impaired eye-sight, which is stated still to be in
use in the Soudan.
School-books cannot be classed as precisely literary, but they are the
handmaids of literature, and mention may therefore be made here of an
article by Mr. J. Gr. Milne on the fragments of such books which have
come to us from the sands of Egypt.8 They range from exercises in
spelling, writing and arithmetic to passages of literature, of which the best
known is the fragment of Callimachus' Hecale at Vienna. Those hitherto
known have consisted mainly of tablets, waxed or whitened, on which in
some cases pupils and masters wrote their exercises, while in others the
boards were hung up in the schoolroom for use (presumably) in reading
and recitation lessons. Mr. Milne's texts, however, are derived from
ostraca, obtained in the neighbourhood of Karnak, showing that the
fondness for this material in Upper Egypt, which was already well known
in regard to tax-receipts and similar documents, extended also to school-
books.
The non-literary publications of the year include no such large
volumes as were described last year, but there are three collections of texts
of some importance. The second part of the Strassburg papyri9 contains
31 texts, competently edited by Dr. Preisigke, and provided with eight
photographic facsimiles and twenty blocks in the text. The documents
are much of the usual kind,—census returns, tax-receipts, contracts,
letters, etc., from the second to the sixth century, and a set of six bonds
for the supply of meat in Antinoopolis in the year 566. The longest text
(no. 52) is a loan secured by a mortgage, of the year 151; among the
others may be mentioned a census-declaration (no. 42) of the year 310,
which shows that by that date the old formula of the /car oUlav
dwoyparfii'i, of which we have evidence up to a.d. 258, had been abandoned.
The official to whom the return is addressed is the censitor Heptanomiae,
probably a creation of the reforms of Diocletian ; his existence is first
known in the year 298. Two little papyrus rolls (39 A and B), which
Preisigke regards as magical documents of the Arabic period, are apparently
modern fabrications of a somewhat familiar type. Another interesting
document (no. 40) is one of the year 569, in which a free citizen binds
himself as a slave for four years on fixed conditions as to pay and
allowances.
The Elephantine papyri, found by 0. Eubensohn during his excavations
in February, 1906, which likewise produced the famous Aramaic documents
e