Catalogue of Demotic Papyri in the British Museum, Vol. 4: Ptolemaic Legal Texts from the Theban Area

Abstract

This fourth volume of the British Museum Demotic Papyri series is a particularly important contribution to Demotic Egyptian studies. Although these texts have long been known (some of the papyri reached the British Museum as early as 1839), this catalogue publishes high quality photographs of these texts and also brings to the attention of a wide audience a significant array of information on Hellenistic Egypt. A brief bibliography is followed by a two page introduction wherein the author states that the project had its start in a desire to publish all remaining unpublished Theban demotic legal documents of Ptolemaic date in the Egyptian collection (p. 12). The result is this catalogue of forty-eight entries totalling fifty-five texts, all but one of which are papyri. The texts range in date from 311 to 119 B.C. and come from Upper Egypt. They are organized into three groups: 1) archives or otherwise related texts from eastern Thebes and Djeme (Medinet Habu); 2) archives or otherwise related texts from Hermonthis (modern Armant, eighteen kilometers south of Luxor); and 3) individual texts from these three areas whose principal parties do not control any known family archive. A brief description of the archives' contents, genealogy, and relevant bibliography precedes the transliteration and translation of each text. Extensive footnotes for each text contain many invaluable comments, particularly those which point out connections to other Theban papyri. Several indices conclude the book.