The Contents of the Tebtunis Papyri

The Tebtunis Papyri fall into four groups on the basis of their provenance. These are:

1. Texts from the crocodile mummies;
2. Texts  from the town and from the temple of Soknebtunis;
3. Texts from the cartonnage of human mummies;
4. Texts from Khamsin (coming soon)
   

Here follows a brief overview of the texts contained in each group.

The Crocodile Papyri

Crocodile mummies found at Tebtunis [Photograph 1899/1900; courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society

The majority of the texts from the Tebtunis crocodile mummies derive from the archive of the komo- grammateus of Kerkeosiris and date to the very end of the second century BC. Central within this body of documents is the archive of Menches, who performed the duties of komogrammateus of Kerkeosiris between about 120 and 110 BC.

Apart from the Menches papers, there are quite a few documents belonging to archives of other Kerkeosiris village officials, such as the epistates and the archiphylakites. An example of such a text is P. Tebt. 52, a petition addressed to Polemon, the epistates of Kerkeosiris. The text dates about 114 BC. In it, Tapentos complains to Polemon that documents were stolen from her house. Unfortunately, only the beginning of the petition has survived:

To Polemon, epistates of Kerkeosiris, from Tapentos daughter of Horos, of the same village.

An attack was made upon my dwelling by Arsinoe and her son Phatres, who went off with the contract relating to my house and other business documents. Therefore I am seriously ill, being in want of the necessaries of life and bodily ...

Here the papyrus breaks off.

A separate group of texts is formed by a collection of some forty–five, mostly private documents from the first half of the first century BC. These texts came from five crocodile mummies that had been buried in two adjacent tombs, strongly suggesting that this was the result of one burial.

Along with these Greek papyri, a few demotic and bilingual papyri were found in the crocodiles. These demotic and bilingual papyri probably originally belonged to the priests of the crocodile god Soknebtunis, who mummified the crocodiles, and who used their own waste papyri in the mummification process, as well as papyri belonging to other people, such as Menches, the village scribe of Kerkeosiris.

The priests of Soknebtunis also buried large demotic papyri alongside the crocodile mummies, possibly as offerings to Soknebtunis. These demotic papyri contained the annual rules of the fraternity of priests.

The Papyri from the Town

Compared to the other three groups, these texts are the most diverse. For one thing, the town papyri yielded most of the literary fragments. Among them are more than a dozen fragments of Homer (Iliad and Odyssey), Demosthenes, and of Dictys Cretensis.

A substantial portion of the papyri from the town concern the priests of Soknebtunis .

Among other texts found in the town are a variety of legal documents: contracts, petitions, declarations, tax receipts. The majority of these documents date to the first three centuries AD, when Egypt was under Roman rule.

P. Tebt. 330 is a petition addressed to the strategos by Ptolemaios son of Patron. The text is not dated, but the strategos Bolanos, we know, served between 196 and 198 AD. In the text, Ptolemaios reports the burglary of his house.

To Bolanos, strategos of the division of Themistos and Polemon of the Arsinoite nome, from Ptolemaios son of Patron, of the village of Tebtunis.

After being absent, when I returned to the village, I found my house pillaged and everything that was stored in it carried off. Wherefore, being unable to submit to this, I apply to you and ask that this petition may be entered on the register in order that, if any one is proved to be the culprit, he may be held accountable to me. Farewell.

P. Tebt. 333 is another petition, in which a woman, Aurelia Tisais, informs the centurion of the disappearance of her father and brother on a hunting expedition. The text is dated to 22 December 216 AD.

To Aurelius Julius Marcellinus, centurion, from Aurelia Tisais, whose mother is Tais, formerly styled as an inhabitant of the village of Tebtunis in the division of Polemon. My father Kalabalis, Sir, who is a hunter, set off with my brother Neilos as long ago as the 3rd of the present month to hunt hares, and up to this time they have not returned. I therefore suspect that they have met with some accident, and I present this statement, making this matter known to you, in order that if they have met with any accident the persons found guilty may be held accountable to me. I happen to have also presented a copy of this notice to the strategos Aurelius Idiomachos to be placed on the register.

The 25th year of Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Caesar the lord, Choiak 26.

P. Tebt. 322 is a census declaration made by Achilleus son of Apollonios. The text dates to 27 August 189 AD.

Signed by me, Apollonios also called Diogenes.

To Ammonios, strategos of the division of Herakleides of the Arsinoite nome, and Harpokration also called Hierax, basilikos grammateus of the same division, and Mystes and Heron, ex–scribes of the metropolis, from Achilleus son of Apollonios son of Lourios also called Apollonios, enrolled as a katoikos, and already registered through another memorandum.

I own in the Moeris quarter a share of a house and area, court, and hall, in which I further return the following occupants for the house–to–house registration of the past 28th year of Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Caesar the lord, being inhabitants of the metropolis registered in the Syrian quarter, in which they were also returned in the house–to–house registration of the 14th year. They are:

Pasigenes son of Theon son of Eutyches, subject to poll–tax, a donkey–driver, aged 61 years

and his son Eutychos by Apollonous daughter of Herodes, aged 30,

and the wife of Pasigenes, Herakleia daughter of Kronion, freedwoman of Didymos son of Heron, of the Treasuries' quarter, aged 40,

and their daughter Thasis, aged 5,

and Herakleia's children, Sabinus son of Sabinus son of Kronion, subject to poll–tax, a wool–carder, aged 18, and Sarapias, aged 22, returned in the former registration in the Treasuries' quarter,

and the wife of Eutyches, who is his sister on the father's side, Tapesouris daughter of Isidora, aged 18.

I accordingly present this statement.

Tapesouris owns in the Moeris quarter a sixth share, formerly her mother's, of a house.

The 29th year of Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Caesar the lord, Mesore epagomenai 4.

Registered with the strategos in the 29th year, Mesore epagomenai 4.

Registered with the basilikos grammateus on the same day.

Registered with the scribes of the city on the same day.

Again, along with these Greek papyri, a few demotic papyri were found in the town. These papyri mostly belong to two private archives, one of the oil merchant Phanesis, son of Nechthuris, dating to the late third century B.C., the other of Soknopis, son of Sigeris, dating to the late second and early first centuries B.C. The demotic papyri are earlier than most of the Greek papyri from the town; the use of Greek became more common later in the Ptolemaic period and in the Roman period.

Mummy portraits from Tebtunis [Photograph 1899/1900; courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society]

The Papyri from the cartonnage of human mummies

The third group of papyri comes from the cartonnage covering human mummies. These texts date from the third and second centuries BC. It would seem that once again, as in the case of the papyri from the crocodile mummies, we have the remains of an official archive. Quite a considerable number of texts can be traced back to Oxyrhyncha, a small village to the north of Tebtunis. Among these, there are texts from village officials, such as the village scribe ( P. Tebt. 715) and the guards (phylakes) ( P. Tebt. 711).

P. Tebt. 771, from the mid–second century BC, consists of a petition from an inhabitant of Oxyrhyncha to the King and Queen of Egypt. Fragments of two copies of this petition have survived in the same mummy cartonnage.

To King Ptolemy and Queen Kleopatra, his sister, the mother–loving gods, greeting. From Petesouchos son of Petos, Crown cultivator from the village of Oxyrhyncha in the division of Polemon in the Arsinoite nome.

I live in Kerkeosiris in the said nome, and there belongs to me in the aforesaid village of Oxyrhyncha a house inherited from my father, possessed by him for the period of his lifetime and by myself after his decease up to the present time with no dispute. But Stratonike daughter of Ptolemaios, an inhabitant of Krokodilon polis in the aforementioned nome, mischievously wishing to practise extortion on me, coming with other persons against the aforesaid house, forces her way in before any judgement has been given and ... in the village about ... the house, coming in and laying claim to it wrongfully. I therefore pray you, mighty gods, if you see fit, to send my petition to Menekrates, archisomatophylax and strategos, so that he may order Stratonike not to force her ways into the house, but, if she thinks she has a grievance, to get redress from me in the proper manner. If this is done, I shall have received succour. Farewell.

Another interesting dossier is formed by some five texts addressed by Agathon to Patron, dating to the mid–third century BC. Although the precise functions of both men are not clear, it would seem they were active in the Oxyrhynchite nome. From P. Tebt. 747, a letter of reprimand , it is apparent that Agathon is the higher official of the two. The text is dated to 30 July 243 BC.

Mummy cartonnage (heads, pectorals, and feet [Photograph 1899/1900; courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society]

Agathon to Patron, greeting.

You are the one and only person who entirely neglects our pressing commands. For though we have written to you and given you orders concerning the timber, you have paid no heed, but have delayed until Ammonios is annoyed and we have been forced to buy timber to send to him. I have written therefore to you in order that you may realize your own carelessness. Goodbye.

The fourth year, Payni 11.

For the other letters from Agathon to Patron see P. Tebt. 745, 746, 748, 749.

In addition to the Greek texts described above, there are large numbers of demotic papyri from the cartonnage of human mummies, including several official registers of tax payments. These demotic papyri therefore come from one or more official archives, perhaps the same archives as the Greek papyri. Early in the Ptolemaic period, during the third and early second centuries B.C., it was quite common for officials to keep administrative records in the Egyptian language rather than in Greek; only later did Greek come to predominate as the administrative language.