History of the Tebtunis Papyri

Unlike the other major papyrus collections in the United States, the Tebtunis papyri come from a single archeological expedition (but from four distinct sites in and around Tebtunis). The history of the collection as a whole can therefore be easily described. This history centers around three locations: Tebtunis, where the papyri were found; Oxford, where the publication of part of the collection was undertaken; and Berkeley, the present home of the collection.

Tebtunis (1899/1900)

The saga of the Tebtunis papyri commenced on 3 December 1899, when Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt descended on the remains of what soon would prove to be Tebtunis. They had been hired by George A. Reisner to excavate for the University of California with funds generously provided by Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst.

Excavating the town of Tebtunis [Photograph 1899/1900; courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society]

Grenfell and Hunt's first objective was the town of Tebtunis itself. In the course of a few weeks they rummaged through the remains of the town and through the remains of a temple complex, which would turn out to be the temple of the crocodile god Soknebtunis ("Sobek, lord of Tebtunis"). In both locations they found a wealth of papyrus, allowing George Reisner to report to Mrs. Hearst on 2 January 1900, that he was "very happy to report extraordinary success on the part of Grenfell and Hunt in the Fayum," having found "nearly as much as in any ordinary year."

In early January 1900, Grenfell and Hunt moved to the huge necropolis in the desert south of Tebtunis. Here they sought human mummies, in particular the cartonnage covering these mummies. A few years earlier, this cartonnage had been proven to be a possible source of texts, when Sir Flinders Petrie discovered that discarded papyri were sometimes employed in its manufacture (think "papyrus mâché"), especially during the later periods. Grenfell and Hunt unearthed more than fifty mummies in whose cartonnage discarded papyri had been used.

View of cemetery at Tebtunis [Photograph 1899/1900; courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society]

While searching for papyrus–laden mummy heads and pectorals, Grenfell and Hunt discovered a cemetery of mummified crocodiles that appeared to border the necropolis with the human mummies. At that time crocodiles were considered to be objects without any archaeological worth whatsoever. This assessment soon changed, however, when on January 16, 1900, one of Grenfell and Hunt's workmen, "disgusted at finding a row of crocodiles where he expected sarcophagi, broke one of them in pieces and disclosed the surprising fact that the creature was wrapped in sheets of papyrus." After this discovery, Grenfell and Hunt devoted the remainder of the season to clearing out part of the crocodile cemetery. Although they unearthed more than 1,000 of these mummified reptiles, only 31 appeared to have been mummified with the help of discarded papyri. Grenfell and Hunt's assistant definitely had had a lucky hand.

In the summer of 1900, finally, the discoveries of the season at Tebtunis were presented to George Reisner and divided. All artifacts were shipped to Berkeley, and are currently housed in the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology. Many papyri written in demotic Egyptian remained in Egypt (to be published in 1908 by W. Spiegelberg in P. dem. Cairo II), while those written in Greek (and few in Latin) went to Oxford, where Grenfell and Hunt would prepare them for publication.

Oxford (1900–1938 for most of the papyri)

Despite the enormous difficulties of the material, Grenfell and Hunt, with the help of J.G. Smyly, managed to publish the first volume of The Tebtunis Papyri just two years after their discovery. This first volume contained documents from the crocodile mummies.

In 1907, Grenfell and Hunt published the second volume, which was devoted to the papyri from the town and temple of Tebtunis itself.

The publication of a third group of papyri, material found in the cartonnage of human mummies, eventually appeared in two parts, in 1933 and 1938. The delay was caused first by the illness and eventual death of Grenfell, and then the death of Hunt. J.G. Smyly again assisted in the preparation of both parts of this third volume; C.C. Edgar helped edit the second part.

Meanwhile in Berkeley, questions arose as to the whereabouts of the papyri from Tebtunis. In 1938, therefore, arrangements were made to ship the papyri to their intended home at the University of California at Berkeley.

Berkeley (1938 –)

In 1938 most of the Tebtunis papyri arrived in Berkeley and became part of the Library. Staff and faculty were surprised to find that more than 30 years after their discovery no measures had been taken to preserve them. They were simply inserted between pages of old issues of the Oxford Daily Gazette and piled up in the tin boxes used by Grenfell and Hunt.

In 1940 the University of California sought the services of a papyrologist since no such specialist was to be found in Berkeley.  The University hired Edmund Kase, Jr., from Grove City College. From 17 June through 14 August Dr. Kase was to put the collection in order, providing guidance for preservation as well as cataloguing.

Heat–sealing a Vinylite frame. Photograph 1940.

Kase went through the issues of the Oxford Daily Gazette and removed the papyri that had been edited in the three volumes of The Tebtunis Papyri. He also removed most of the larger unpublished Greek fragments. In total, Kase took 1705 fragments from the tin boxes, catalogued them (giving each a UC inventory number), and mounted them. The material that Kase selected to mount the papyri was a plastic called Vinylite. In a letter to Prof. H.R.W. Smith, Kase enthusiastically enumerated the advantages of this new material: it was unbreakable, took up less space than glass, and was light and easy to store.

The heat–sealing equipment. Photograph 1940.

After Kase left, the state of the Tebtunis collection was as follows: 1705 fragments, including all fragments that had been published in the first three volumes of The Tebtunis Papyri, were mounted in panes of Vinylite. The remainder of the collection still languished in tin boxes between old issues of the Oxford Daily Gazette. This situation would not change until the 70's.

"Vinylite is easy to store...". Photograph 1940.

 The 1970s

In the early seventies, work on the Tebtunis papyri, which had by then come to The Bancroft Library, resumed. These efforts culminated in the publication of a fourth volume of The Tebtunis Papyri, in which a large portion of the papyri that had only been briefly described at the end of the first (crocodile papyri) volume were published in full. This task was completed by the late John Shelton and James Keenan.

The renewed attention to the Tebtunis papyri also made painfully clear what time had done to the collection. It became apparent that Vinylite also had enormous disadvantages. Light and unbreakable as predicted by Kase, the material also proved quite flexible. This flexibility caused fragments of the papyrus to break off inside the mount, and these fragments tended to move around inside the mount due to the static electricity generated by the two sheets of plastic. This damage could not, and cannot, be repaired without breaking the mount, as the mounts were heat sealed. Another disadvantage of the Vinylite  was its susceptibility to scratching.

The 1705 fragments mounted in Vinylite. Photograph 1940.

While working on the papyri, Shelton took some of the papyri out of the Vinylite and remounted them under glass. He also urged the library to take measures to prevent further damage to the papyri.

In 1979, Dr. Elbert Wall visited The Bancroft Library on behalf of the American Center of the International Photographic Archive of Papyri. He photographed a large portion of the collection. Not only did he photograph the 1705 mounted and catalogued fragments, he also removed more than 21,000 papyrus fragments from the tin boxes in order to photograph the most important of them, and he stored them in acid–free folders, ten fragments to a folder. Unfortunately,  Wall did not have sufficient time to remove all of the papyri from the tin boxes.

In the late seventies, then, the situation with regard to the Tebtunis papyri was as follows:  About 1600 of the mounted and catalogued papyri were still in their Vinylite mounts; the remainder of them had been remounted in glass. More than 21,000 fragments were crushed together in acid–free folders. And there still remained a number of tin boxes with papyrus fragments, including part of an unopened roll.

APIS

And now we are on the verge of a new era. Thanks to a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, work on the Tebtunis papyri has resumed once again. In 1996, The Bancroft Library began to catalogue, conserve, and digitally image the collection as a participant in the Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS).