DOI Artikel:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology: graeco-roman Egypt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12420#0066
52
Progress of Egyptology
administration the most substantial that has appeared this year is Eger's
study of the system of land registration in Eoman Egypt.22 There are a
good many documents (of which Eger gives a table) mentioning the
/3i/3\t,o<fiv\aKet; or j3i(3\Lo9rjicri iy/cTijaecov, so that a fair view of their
functions is obtainable. Accurate land survey and registration of landed
property were a fundamental part of the Egyptian economic system, and it
was the function of these " record offices " to keep a register of all transfers
of land. In principle the fitfiXiod/j/cr] twv iy/crijaecov, which dealt with
private property (including the hereditary tenants of domain land known
as catoeci), was distinct from the fii/3\io6ijta} Srj/Mocrla, which dealt with
the census returns and other records connected with taxation, and there
was one registry of each class in each nome, though it appears that in
some eases both registries were united in a single office. To the same
class of work belongs a study by M. Engers of village administration in
the Ptolemaic period,23 which might usefully be extended to cover the
Eoman period also.
On the administrative side may also be mentioned the concluding
portions of Koschaker's treatise on the archidicastes 24 (see no. 31 in last
year's Keport). They deal partly with the registration of contracts, which
was the chief function of this officer, and partly with his share in certain
legal processes, which generally involve the delivery of copies of docu-
ments. Legal discussions, as usual, form a considerable part of the
papyrus literature of the year. A short paper by Wenger25 deals with
certain questions of the law of residential property in Egypt, which present
analogies with German law. Prof. K. de Euggiero examines recently
published documents bearing upon the history of marriage and divorce in
Graeco-Ecman Egypt,26 and Prof. Costa discusses the light thrown upon
the law of mortgage by a Strassburg papyrus27 (no. 52 in Preisigke's
edition).
Among miscellaneous articles may be mentioned an article by Viereck
of a popular character, on the life and political organisation of
Hermopolis,28 as revealed by the papyri, and especially by those published
by Wessely in his Corpus papyrorum Hcrmopolitanorum (no. 37 in the
Eeport for 1904-5); and the continuation of Prof. Moulton's and
Dr. Milligan's lexical notes from the papyri (as illustrating Biblical Greek)
in the Expositor.-* Mention may also be made of the fact that the latest
part of the New Palaeographical Society's publications includes two plates
from the Aphrodito papyri of the early eighth century in the British
Museum,30 illustrating the types of hand found in the accounts of this
date, which are closely akin to the earliest minuscule hands on vellum.
Progress of Egyptology
administration the most substantial that has appeared this year is Eger's
study of the system of land registration in Eoman Egypt.22 There are a
good many documents (of which Eger gives a table) mentioning the
/3i/3\t,o<fiv\aKet; or j3i(3\Lo9rjicri iy/cTijaecov, so that a fair view of their
functions is obtainable. Accurate land survey and registration of landed
property were a fundamental part of the Egyptian economic system, and it
was the function of these " record offices " to keep a register of all transfers
of land. In principle the fitfiXiod/j/cr] twv iy/crijaecov, which dealt with
private property (including the hereditary tenants of domain land known
as catoeci), was distinct from the fii/3\io6ijta} Srj/Mocrla, which dealt with
the census returns and other records connected with taxation, and there
was one registry of each class in each nome, though it appears that in
some eases both registries were united in a single office. To the same
class of work belongs a study by M. Engers of village administration in
the Ptolemaic period,23 which might usefully be extended to cover the
Eoman period also.
On the administrative side may also be mentioned the concluding
portions of Koschaker's treatise on the archidicastes 24 (see no. 31 in last
year's Keport). They deal partly with the registration of contracts, which
was the chief function of this officer, and partly with his share in certain
legal processes, which generally involve the delivery of copies of docu-
ments. Legal discussions, as usual, form a considerable part of the
papyrus literature of the year. A short paper by Wenger25 deals with
certain questions of the law of residential property in Egypt, which present
analogies with German law. Prof. K. de Euggiero examines recently
published documents bearing upon the history of marriage and divorce in
Graeco-Ecman Egypt,26 and Prof. Costa discusses the light thrown upon
the law of mortgage by a Strassburg papyrus27 (no. 52 in Preisigke's
edition).
Among miscellaneous articles may be mentioned an article by Viereck
of a popular character, on the life and political organisation of
Hermopolis,28 as revealed by the papyri, and especially by those published
by Wessely in his Corpus papyrorum Hcrmopolitanorum (no. 37 in the
Eeport for 1904-5); and the continuation of Prof. Moulton's and
Dr. Milligan's lexical notes from the papyri (as illustrating Biblical Greek)
in the Expositor.-* Mention may also be made of the fact that the latest
part of the New Palaeographical Society's publications includes two plates
from the Aphrodito papyri of the early eighth century in the British
Museum,30 illustrating the types of hand found in the accounts of this
date, which are closely akin to the earliest minuscule hands on vellum.