The interrelationship between scriptal and linguistic variation in notary signatures of Greek contracts from late antique Egypt

This study investigates linguistic and scriptal variation in notary signatures found in late antique contracts from Egypt, seeking to identify and interpret the potential relationship between choices in language and script. To answer this, theoretical concepts and methods from sociolinguistics, social semiotics, and multilingual studies are used, with the objective of adding a new, more linguistically-oriented perspective to existing research on notarial signatures. On the one hand, this research demonstrates how the Latin script seems to restrict notaries, resulting in transliterated Greek signatures with very homogeneous content. The familiarity of notaries with the Greek language and writing is, on the other hand, reflected in signatures written in the Greek alphabet, which are much more diverse and at times adjusted to the circumstances under which specific documents were composed. Even if notaries seem to lack confidence in freely producing text in the Latin script, they choose to do so due to its functional values, which are conveyed and perceived visually. Latin letters create an association between signatories and Roman law, adding to the trustworthiness and prestige of the signatures. Differentiating between script and language allows us to understand how the Latin script maintained the connotations that formerly accompanied the Latin language, gradually replacing it in the form of transliterated passages, at a time when the language was disappearing from papyrological documentation. In this sense, sociolinguistics, and especially social semiotics, prove useful when dealing with visual aspects of language in papyri, as they prevent their functions and meanings from being overlooked.

Greek papyri of the Classics Department at Stanford (P. Stan. Class.) – Part II

Among the sixteen Ptolemaic texts (33–44) from the collection of the Greek papyri of the Department of Classics at Stanford are petitions, official correspondence, letters, a declaration of surety with royal oath – one the earliest dated texts in the collection (227 bc) – and an account. Most notable is the discovery of the upper part of P. K öln VI 261, a petition to the oikonomos Apollonios (33 + 18) about oil-contraband and prisoners of war. Another petition is addressed to the oikonomos Poseidonios (Prosopographia Ptolemaica I/VIII 1079) about the wool tax (34), while 35, a draft written with an Egyptian rush, reports an effraction at night with arson. The official correspondence deals with tax-farming and oil-bearing products.

I. Deir el-Bahari 196 (partly) supplemented

The article presents a fragment of the cornice from the Ptolemaic Portico of the Hatshepsut temple at Deir el-Bahari discovered in 2021 in the fill of the Middle Kingdom tomb MMA 28. The fragment carries remnants of two dipinti in red ochre, of which one is illegible and the other preserves vestiges of the three first lines of the Greek inscription I. Deir el-Bahari 196. They show that the inscription was a proskynema (act of adoration) addressed to Amenothes (Greek for Amenhotep son of Hapu). The name of the author cannot be read with certainty (perhaps Pe[---]); the text also mentions a certain Menodoros, who may be the father of the protagonist of the inscription or another man. In an appendix, a fragment of another text in Greek, probably originating from the south wall of the Bark Room of the main sanctuary of Amun is presented.

Die Priester und der Textillieferant. SPP X XII 95 und die Ermittlungen zu einem ungeklärten Todesfall im Hinterland

SPP XXII 95 (early 3rd century ad) is concerned with the leading priests of the sanctuary of Soknopaios, who were arrested on account of the suspicious death of a clothes vendor. Their interrogations, however, brought no result, and now efforts are being made to have them released. In the present papyrus, the head of the office summarises the state of affairs in order to append it as a ‘cover-letter’ to the petition submitted to the strategos.

Nubica onomastica miscellanea V: Reedition of two Old Nubian lists of names from Qasr Ibrim

Unlike previous instalments of the ‘Nubica onomastica miscellanea’-series which focused on correcting single names or phrases in Nubian texts, its fifth part brings the complete reedition of two more substantial texts originally published by Giovanni Ruffini. The former is a list of witnesses to a deed of land sale (P. Qasr Ibrim IV 65) and the latter an account (P. Qasr Ibrim IV 80). While the main subject of the paper are personal names that can be found in the two documents, other elements, such as grammar, lexicon, and – especially for P. Qasr Ibrim IV 80 – the matter of the document are also duly treated. By identifying ghost-names in Ruffini’s edition and proposing the identification of new Old Nubian substantives, the paper enhances our knowledge about the vocabulary of the language. Last but not least, the new interpretation of P. Qasr Ibrim IV 80, which – for the first time in medieval Nubia – appears to explicitly state the value of certain commodities in dirhams, is an important contribution to the studies on the monetisation of Nubian economy.

Sacred animal cult workers in the Ptolemaic Fayum

In ancient Egypt sacred animals were served by specific categories of priests who fulfilled various functions and tasks. The aim of this article is to examine the evidence that concerns the activities of these priests within sacred animal cults in the Ptolemaic Fayum. This study identifies, analyses, and classifies the occupational titles of the priests and attempts to discover the full range of their duties, concentrating on their non-religious activities. This in turn will enable the role that they played in both local society and the economy to be explored.

Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar. A survey of the first century BC – third century ad Latin and Latin-Greek documents referring to Roman citizens and their business in Egypt

The paper provides an updated and annotated list of Latin and bilingual Latin-Greek papyri from the first century bc to the early third century ad – including very recently published and still unpublished – that refer to the lives and businesses of Roman citizens in Egypt. It also covers documents connected with the Roman army, that is produced in military officia to be specifically used by soldiers (acknowledgments of debt, receipts of money etc.). They are connected not with the army life, but with the life outside the barracks, among tradesmen, merchants, and (from the second century ad onwards) in the milieu of veterans.

Trois nouveaux reçus d’annone civile transportée par le monastère de la Métanoia (Égypte, vie siècle)

Edition of three sixth-century shipping receipts for the annona civilis transported by the Monastery of the Metanoia (near Canopus). Two of them belong to the Dioscorus archive. The appendix proposes a revision of the other shipping receipts involving the Metanoia – one from the Monastery of Sabinos, the other ones from Aphrodite.

Mark Antony and the date of the Inimitables. A remark on an edited text

A Greek inscription on stone found in Alexandria in the nine- teenth century and exhibited in the Alexandrian Greco-Roman Museum contains an unusual dedicatory text in honour of Mark Antony. The text was edited several times. It contains useful information which agrees with the passage of Plutarch on the lifestyle of Antony and Cleopatra, and their entourage. In this paper the author suggests the date 34–30 bc for the activity of the ‘Inimitables’ and adds a further commentary on the history of Antony and Cleopatra.