A Second-Century Treatise on Egyptian Priests and Temples

Abstract

In return for contributions to aid in excavations at Oxyrhynchus in the 1920's Sir Flinders Petrie sent to Washington University, St. Louis, several hundred papyri, very fragmentary for the most part, and ranging in date from the second century B.C. to the fifth or sixth century A.D. Following the death of Professor Frank Debatin of that university who had done some preliminary work on the collection, permission was given me to publish it. Many of the pieces had never been cleaned and remained creased and covered with dirt, evidently in the condition in which they had been found. After the collection had been cleaned, photographed and examined the five fragments that make up the present text seemed to be by far the most interesting and the most important of the lot. Though no continuous text was provided, their religious content was apparent from such words as προϕήτης, ἱερόν, ἱερεύς and μυστηριασθῆναι.