Volume 66, Issue 1

The Artemidorus Papyrus has a legend on the verso (V6) that bears the usual word for ‘beaver’ in ancient Greek, i.e. κάστωρ. This does not correspond to the drawing of the animal, which looks more like a dog. Through an analysis of various zoological texts, this article solves the difficulty by considering the other zoonym of the beaver, which was κυνοπόταμος, i.e. the ‘river dog’.

Editio princeps of parts of Libanius’ oratio XVIII preserved on fragments of a papyrus codex.

P.Freib. IV 47 (two separate fragments) preserves a narrative text that is too fragmentary to allow the reconstruction of a plot. In the present paper, we suggest improvements to the text and collect parallels which reinforce the current view that it comes from a lost novel; we also address the possibility that this novel could have a Christian theme.

This article presents an unpublished Ptolemaic papyrus from the collection of the University of Trier. It contains an official letter probably to an oikonomos concerning a tax-collection, which requires further investigation.

This study argues that ethnic designations in the documentary sources constitute our best evidence for immigration to Hellenistic Egypt, for the ethnic composition of the population and for the relative proportions of the different immigrant groups in relation to each other. Ethnic designations indicate that Hellenistic Egypt became ethnically diverse and that a substantial proportion of immigrants arrived from outside the Graeco-Macedonian world.

Edition of a poll-tax receipt from Hermopolis in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München. The receipt is dated August 6, AD 195, and is one of the few poll-tax receipts from Hermopolis.

The study deals with ChLA X 417, a papyrus from the Berlin collection, which preserves one of the two known examples of codicilli imperatoris. These codicilli were of central importance in appointing a high Roman official, such as a governor. Contrary to previous interpretations, it is argued that the codicilli could concern not only Laberius Maximus and Domitian, but also Vibius Maximus and Trajan. Vibius Maximus was probably never punished by damnatio memoriae.

The πλοῖον κοπρηγόν was a specific kind of boat that was dedicated to the conveyance of manure. It is evidenced in Memphis only by two Roman papyri. It seems that there were several kinds of such boats, operating on various scales and revealing various architectural features. The conveyance of dung may imply elites who were interested in a lucrative agriculture.

This article presents a full publication of three Christian funerary stelae from Egypt, which were bought in 1912 by Friedrich von Bissing and are now in the Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst at Munich. The first one represents an orans figure, the second depicts a crux ansata and the third has the names Pasep inscribed (in Greek) on the front and Phanes on the back. Although the precise provenance of these pieces is unknown, stylistic features suggest they are from Deir el-Bala’iza, Armant and Edfu respectively.

A reevaluation of the ostraca and graffiti from the First Monastery of Apa Phoibammon-known in scholarship as the original home of bishop Abraham but for little else-reveals close ties to the monastic network of Hermonthis visible in the newly discovered ostraca dossier from the Monastery of Apa Ezekiel, led by Abraham’s predecessor Andrew of Hermonthis in the later 6 th century.