DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6442#0012
t
THE AMHERST PAPYRI.
L
Papyri Nos. I, II and IV are fragments of a
series of early literary documents discovered
many years ago in some locality, perhaps
Thebes, in Upper Egypt. The main part of
the "find" was brought to England in 1840, i
where it was purchased by Prof. Lepsius for
the Berlin Museum, and the papyri of which it
was composed (four in number) were soon
after (in 1842) published by him in fac-simile.
The first of these, known as the Berlin Papyrus
No. I, contains the celebrated story of Sanehat, 1
and describes the fate of an exile among the
Syrian bedawin. The tale is simple and homely,
and written in a semi-poetic style. It was one
of the most popular of ancient Egyptian stories,
and was widely read for centuries, a copy of
part of it having been written as late as the
XXth dynasty (circa 1000 b.c.).
The second and fourth papyri of the Berlin
series contain copies of one and the same tale,
which is also very simple in character. It
tells of a quarrel between a peasant and a
townsman, which purports to have happened
at Henenseten or Herakleopolis, now Ahnas,
a little south of the Fayum. The third papy-
rus of the series (Berlin Papyrus No. Ill)
contains a remarkable dialogue between a man
and his ghost. Curiously enough, although the
papyri are of great length, not one of these
four documents is complete ; they all want the
outer coils or more of the rolls. There .-ire
fragments of three of these papyri (Berlin Nos.
I, II and IV) in the Amherst Collection. When
and where Lord Amherst procured them is un-
fortunately not certain, but it seems probable
that they were obtained with the collections
of Mr. Lieder of Cairo in the year 1861. An
account of the fragments was published by
Mr. Griffith in the Proceedings of ilia Society
of Biblical Archceology for 1892, but they are
published in fac-simile for the first time on
Plate I of this Catalogue. They number in
all sixteen pieces, of which five belong to the
Berlin Papyrus No. I, five to the Berlin Papy-
rus No. II, and two to the Berlin Papyrus No.
VI. The remaining four fragments perhaps
formed part of the outer coil of No. III.
The text of the two stories contained in the
Berlin Pap}Tri Nos. I, II and IV, has been tran-
scribed from the original documents in the
Berlin Museum, and translations of them have
been made by several Egyptologists. For the
beginning of the tale of Sanehat the reader is
referred to Prof. Maspero's publication of the
XXth dynasty ostraca in the 1st Memoir of the
Institut Egyptien of Cairo, and to Mr. Griffith's
reconstruction of the text in the style of the
original from the Amherst fragments, in the
Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archae-
ology, Vol. XIV. The text of the Berlin Papy-
rus No. I is best transcribed in Prof. Maspero's
edition, printed in the Melanges d'Arche'ologie
Egyptienne, III, G8,140, but it requires consider-
able revision. The most trustworthy English
THE AMHERST PAPYRI.
L
Papyri Nos. I, II and IV are fragments of a
series of early literary documents discovered
many years ago in some locality, perhaps
Thebes, in Upper Egypt. The main part of
the "find" was brought to England in 1840, i
where it was purchased by Prof. Lepsius for
the Berlin Museum, and the papyri of which it
was composed (four in number) were soon
after (in 1842) published by him in fac-simile.
The first of these, known as the Berlin Papyrus
No. I, contains the celebrated story of Sanehat, 1
and describes the fate of an exile among the
Syrian bedawin. The tale is simple and homely,
and written in a semi-poetic style. It was one
of the most popular of ancient Egyptian stories,
and was widely read for centuries, a copy of
part of it having been written as late as the
XXth dynasty (circa 1000 b.c.).
The second and fourth papyri of the Berlin
series contain copies of one and the same tale,
which is also very simple in character. It
tells of a quarrel between a peasant and a
townsman, which purports to have happened
at Henenseten or Herakleopolis, now Ahnas,
a little south of the Fayum. The third papy-
rus of the series (Berlin Papyrus No. Ill)
contains a remarkable dialogue between a man
and his ghost. Curiously enough, although the
papyri are of great length, not one of these
four documents is complete ; they all want the
outer coils or more of the rolls. There .-ire
fragments of three of these papyri (Berlin Nos.
I, II and IV) in the Amherst Collection. When
and where Lord Amherst procured them is un-
fortunately not certain, but it seems probable
that they were obtained with the collections
of Mr. Lieder of Cairo in the year 1861. An
account of the fragments was published by
Mr. Griffith in the Proceedings of ilia Society
of Biblical Archceology for 1892, but they are
published in fac-simile for the first time on
Plate I of this Catalogue. They number in
all sixteen pieces, of which five belong to the
Berlin Papyrus No. I, five to the Berlin Papy-
rus No. II, and two to the Berlin Papyrus No.
VI. The remaining four fragments perhaps
formed part of the outer coil of No. III.
The text of the two stories contained in the
Berlin Pap}Tri Nos. I, II and IV, has been tran-
scribed from the original documents in the
Berlin Museum, and translations of them have
been made by several Egyptologists. For the
beginning of the tale of Sanehat the reader is
referred to Prof. Maspero's publication of the
XXth dynasty ostraca in the 1st Memoir of the
Institut Egyptien of Cairo, and to Mr. Griffith's
reconstruction of the text in the style of the
original from the Amherst fragments, in the
Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archae-
ology, Vol. XIV. The text of the Berlin Papy-
rus No. I is best transcribed in Prof. Maspero's
edition, printed in the Melanges d'Arche'ologie
Egyptienne, III, G8,140, but it requires consider-
able revision. The most trustworthy English