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Pap. New York, Brooklyn Museum 47.218.8

TEI-XML-File: https://p612399.webspaceconfig.de/xml/elephantine_erc_db_318112.tei.xml

Metadata

Collection

Inventory Number	Pap. New York, Brooklyn Museum 47.218.8
Current Location	New York, Brooklyn Museum
Comments on Inventory	Bequest of Miss Theodora Wilbour from the collection of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour
Publication Permission Status	permission for publication upon enquiry only
Publication Status	unpublished

Origin / Provenance

Ancient Provenance Site	Elephantine (Ꜣbw; Yb; YbꜢ; YbꜤ; Ἐλεφαντίνη, יב , ⲉⲓⲏⲃ) [Trismegistos] Certainty: high
Ancient Provenance Details	Unknown, but probably Elephantine. Container unmarked. Possible place made: Elephantine Egypt.
Ancient Provenance District	Upper Egypt, 1st nome (Ombites) [Trismegistos]
Type of Discovery	find or purchase Certainty: high
Finder (= First Purchaser)	Wilbour, Charles Edwin Certainty: high
Location of Find / Purchase in Egypt	unknown
District of Find / Purchase in Egypt	Upper Egypt, 1st nome (Ombites) [Trismegistos]
Type of Acquisition for the Intitution	donation
Transferor (Seller, Previous Owner)	Wilbour, Charles Edwin Certainty: high
Buyer (Currently Housing Institution)	(not relevant) Certainty: high

Object

Object Type	papyrus
Range of Preservation	incomplete
State of Preservation	Several hundred small papyrus fragments. Condition: very fragmentary.
Mounting	(unknown)
Comments on Object	Medium Box of Fragments: 2 1/4 x 6 7/16 x 8 1/2 in. (5.7 x 16.4 x 21.6 cm) Cartouche Fragment: 1 3/16 × 1 3/8 in. (3 × 3.5 cm) Measurements: max. size, c. 3.5cm. Dimensions: Typical fragments from a random sampling were c. 3.5 x 2.5 cm.

Text Basic Information

Localization of Text on Object	recto
Script-Fiber-Relation (for Payri)	parallel (recto)
Inks and Pigments	carbon ink monochrome black
Range of Preservation (Text)	incomplete
State of Preservation (Text)	Mass of small papyrus fragments inscribed recto and verso in Hieratic, black and red. Fragm. 1: 1 column of text preserved, possibly 2-3 lines of text above. Fragm. 2: 2 columns of text preserved.
Script, Primary	Hieratic
Language, Primary	Middle Egyptian
Comments on Handwriting	Large, clear script of early type. Fragm. 2: "Note: This disposition of the signs wdjA quail chick following verticla sign, I've seen so far forthe OK only on PT, Abusir papyri, and a prestigious Elephantine letter from Strasbourg. in other letters the quail chick goes before the vertical sign." (Almansa-Villatoro).
Comments on Text Layout	inscribed recto and verso in Old Kingdom Hieratic, black and red. Fragm. 1: first preserved line of text written in red

 

Text Content

Modern Title	Private letter and/or account
Ancient Archives	(Uncertain)
Ancient Author of Text	(Unknown)
Ancient Scribe(s) of Text	(Unknown)
Text Types	documentary | account documentary | letter
Summary of Content	Presumably a private letter. One fragment has a partial cartouche with nfr-kA-ra, the praenomen of Pepi II. Nb. (ORourke) These fragments have been mentioned in the scholarly literature as coming from an Old Kingdom royal funerary archive. A careful study of them suggests that such an identification is not the case. Rather, they are from letters and other documents belonging to private persons. Several letters from Wilbour may be instructive here: Tuesday Jan. 10, 1882 “I went over to Elephantine and was assailed by a crowd of women and children and soon loaded Said with inscribed potsherds…one offered to show me where they dug fragments of papyrus out of the ground; she said there been some there in a little room. I went in and in a little while she and others picked out from the rubbish some small fragments, scarce large enough to tell their language.” Fragment 1: "part of an account" (Almansa-Villatoro) Fragment 2: content unknown, due to fragmentary condition. Thursday Jan. 12, 1882 “I went over with Said to Elephantine and harvested the pint of papyrus fragments my women had picked out from the mine. We got a few more ostraca, making about one hundred twenty in all.”
Location of Composition	unknown unknown Egypt (Certainty: high)
Multilingualism	Monolingual Script = Language
Religion	Polytheism (Egyptian)

 

Text

 

 

Dates

RulerID	Regnal Year	MonthID	Day Date of the Text	Gregorian Date	dating_comment
06th dynasty				-2288 BCE -2194 BCE	Dynasty 6, reign of Neferkare Pepi II; -2244 / -2194;

 

Pictures

 

Literature

previousely unpublished

 

DatasetID	318112
last Change	29.07.2022
Author	Verena Lepper; Daniela C. Härtel
Dataset License	Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA)
Data set citation	Data set 318112 (= Pap. New York, Brooklyn Museum 47.218.8), ERC-Project ELEPHANTINE: Verena Lepper; Daniela C. Härtel.