Papyrus
Gallery Location
Not on View
Medium
papyrus
Geography
Excavated at Theadelpheia (Batn al-Harit), Egypt
Date
about 100-200 CE
Period
Roman Imperial period
Dimensions
20.7 13.9 cm
Object number
909.81.47
Object History
This papyrus fragments was excavated near the modern town of Batn al-Harit (ancient Theadelpheia) in the Fayum, Egypt, indicated by the Greek letter theta (θ) inscribed on the back (verso) of the manuscript. Led by Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt and sponsored by the Egypt Exploration Fund (EEF), the excavation occurred between January and March of 1899. At the close of the dig, all artifacts, including this papyrus, were delivered to Oxford University. The papyrus was acquired by the ROM from the EEF in 1909, likely as a result of subscriptions to the EEF collected by Toronto donors and overseen by C. T. Currelly. Between 14 September 1967 and 7 April 1972, the papyrus was in the care of Alan Samuel, a Professor at the Department of Classics, University of Toronto, who mounted it between glass before returning it to the ROM.
Description
This large fragment of the papyrus roll contains the remains of two columns of text on the front (recto), written in a semi-literary hand with black ink across the fibres. 22 lines of text remain in the left hand column, interupted by a break in the papyrus, and 33 lines on the right hand column are followed by 2 partial lines in the lower margin. The text is highly abraded and difficult to read, even with the aid of infrared imaging. But what is visible suggests that the hand is small and neat, with the occasional ligature, and regular spacing between lines. The roll may have contained a literary text, but this is impossible to confirm.
There is no ancient writing on the back (verso).
A processing number θ220 was written on the back (verso) some time after excavation.
