Papyrology

The Papyrology (from Greek πάπυρος papyrus, papyrus ( - perennial ) ' and λόγος lógos ' word', 'doctrine' ) is a special discipline of classical archeology and ancient history. Its subject is ancient Greek and Latin texts on papyrus, ostraca, parchment, wood and lead tablet and similar Beschreibstoffen. Papyri were found predominantly in Egypt. They come from the Greco-Roman period of about 300 BC to 700 AD, ie from the millennium between the conquest of the Nile Valley by Alexander the Great and the abolition of the Greek language of administration by the Arabs after their domination over in the course of Islamic expansion.

Papyri, which have not been written in Greek or Latin, fall within the competence of other disciplines such as Egyptology, Coptic Studies, Jewish Studies and Islamic Studies.

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Relationship to other sciences

The Papyrology is an auxiliary science for some other disciplines or forms the basis of:

• The economic and social history can draw from the analysis of preserved on papyrus documents conclusions on the ancient everyday life and business contexts ( eg price developments ) or trade and communication routes, as papyri to this in the literary tradition mostly neglected areas important information can deliver.
• The ancient history of law analyzed legal documents (such as the purchase, lease, loan transactions, marriage, contracts, etc.) and follows the development of the legal system, especially in the Hellenistic period.
• Religious studies, theology and church history evaluates the obtained Papyrus earliest evidence for the text of the Greek Old and New Testaments and interpreted the numerous finds of papyri with early Christian apocryphal or patristic literature. Papyri are abbreviated in the textual criticism of the New Testament with the letter P in fracture with a superscript number: n
• The Linguistics tracked using the papyri the emergence of the ancient Greek vernacular, the so-called Koine, an intermediate stage on the way from classical Greek to modern Greek.
• Papyri allow - in comparison to other ancient societies - very detailed reconstruction of the Egyptian administrative structures and power relations.
• The historical demography of papyrus documents may gain relatively reliable estimates of population density and changes in ancient Egypt.

From papyrology epigraphy is to delineate which mainly deals with inscriptions on stone and metal, traditionally treated but also texts on writing tablets, as they were found about in the Roman Vindolanda.

An important related with papyrology auxiliary science is the paleography, the doctrine of the letterforms and writing development. Since the majority of the papyri is not written in book writing, but in cursive and the state of preservation is often poor and patchy, the deciphering of high demands and requires appropriate knowledge to read the texts and be able to edit. The paleography also allows an approximate age determination, since certain forms of writing or writing habits die like the use of certain abbreviations to classify time.

Documentary and literary papyri

The papyrology differs as other text- research- disciplines between documentary and literary papyri. The documentary, which constitute the vast majority of the papyri preserved include, among other documents, private letters, contracts and country lists. These findings are also referred remnant sources, because at the time when these documents no one thought of the Weitertradierung and the preservation of these Domumente is due more or less to chance.

Among the literary papyri you count all the extant texts on papyrus, which has been adopted in the direct tradition ( or at least could have received ). There are texts that call, for example, to an audience. These papyri were and thought for later transcription.

Origin of the Papyri

Ptolemaic Period and Egypt as a province of the Roman Empire

Between 332 BC, when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and 642 AD, when the country was conquered by Islamic Arabs, the official and working language Ancient Greek was prevalent in Egypt. Only the papyri in this language as well as the ( very few) Latin pieces are handled by the Papyrology. The earliest previously known Greek papyri from Egypt arose in the early 3rd century BC. Since the Arabs clung few decades at the conventional management of the Nile Valley, Greek was abolished there only 693 as an official language.

In the Roman Empire

A small part of the preserved papyri comes from other areas of the Roman Empire - for the whole empire, this material was used - but the prerequisite for conservation was never as low as in the Egyptian desert sand. Significant papyrus finds are the Papyri at Herculaneum (where the papyri were indeed charred by the ashes of Vesuvius in 79 AD, but were preserved and thanks to modern technology can be made readable ) or the papyri from Dura Europos on the Euphrates.

In other languages

In papyri texts found in Egyptian language ( Hieratic, Demotic, Coptic ), fall in Hebrew, Persian, Arabic and other languages ​​in the area of other disciplines (eg Egyptology ).

Papyri from the Islamic period are mainly letters, legal documents, legal texts ( people, inheritance, marriage and Procedural Law ). There are also literary (that is außerkoranische ) Texts from the 9th century.

Analysis and Storage

General -trained scholars of antiquity are hard to work in the field of Papyrology able with unedited sources, since few experts have the necessary specialist knowledge. At most papyri are written in " book writing", also other researchers tap. The workup and edition of the papyri by the Papyrologists therefore is of particular importance, as a function of this specialized discipline researchers from various disciplines (eg, philologists, historians, archaeologists ). In the detection and exploitation of the material the subject has recognized the enormous potential of digitization early.

The Institute of Papyrology, University of Heidelberg will be lead by Andrea Jördens initiated by Dieter Hagedorn Complete index of all published Greek papyri of Egypt. In addition, there are further indispensable, even going back to Friedrich Preisigke research tools of the discipline to be processed:

• The correction table of Greek papyrus documents from Egypt (in cooperation with Francisca AJ Hoogendijk, Papyrologisch Instituut Leiden University ), a systematic collection of all correction suggestions for reading of papyrus texts
• The Dictionary of Greek papyrus documents from Egypt, the complete coverage of the word material and the citations in the papyri
• 's scrapbook Greek papyrus documents from Egypt, the collection of all scattered edierter papyri in a Standard Edition

Other important tools are those of Roger Bagnall, Director of the Insitute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, led projects Papyri.info that allows targeted searches in several relevant databases, and Advanced Papyrological Information System ( APIS ), which opens up the stocks of important collections.

At the University of Leuven is created with Trismegistus under Mark Depauw another information portal that exceeds the existing due to the various languages ​​and text support limits. The Association of the Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth and the Centre de papyrology et d' epigraphy grecque the Université Libre de Bruxelles, published bibliography Papyrologique captures the relevant literature and is updated regularly.

Significant papyrologists

For papyrology the first half of the 20th century in German-speaking especially the works of Friedrich Preisigke ( 1853-1924 ), Otto Gradenwitz ( 1860-1935 ), Ulrich Wilcken ( 1862-1944 ), Leopold Wenger ( 1874-1953 ), Walter Otto (1878-1941) and Emil Kiessling (1896-1985) formative.

The basic introduction La Papirologia, Turin 1973 last Milan in 1991, comes from the Italian Lolina Montevecchi. Among the important Papyrologists the second half of the 20th century also include, for example, the British Eric Gardner Turner and Peter J. Parsons, the Italians Medea Norsa, Manfredo Manfredi, Marcello Gigante and Tiziano Dorandi, the Belgian Jean Bingen, the Dutchman Pieter J. Sijpestein, the German Ludwig Koenen, Dieter Hagedorn and Herwig Maehler and the Americans Herbert C. Youtie, Dirk Obbink and Roger Bagnall.

Institutes and Associations

In Germany there is one Professor of Papyrology at the Universities of Heidelberg and Trier. Furthermore, legal history Chairs and Institutes deal about in Munich, Freiburg, Marburg and Göttingen with papyrology.

At the University of Vienna (location: Austrian National Library housed there because of the Papyri, which counts with 180,000 objects the largest in the world) there is a special work area for Papyrology, which was launched by the classical scholar Hermann Harrauer to life. 2004, the first Professor of Papyrology and Ancient History was established, which was awarded to its first undergraduates, Bernhard Palme. Papyrology is currently mandatory for students of Ancient History and Archaeology in Vienna - a specialty in the German-speaking countries.

Significant papyrus collections are located in Germany in Giessen, Heidelberg, Halle, Jena, Leipzig, Marburg and Trier.

Epigraphy - - At the North Rhine- Westphalian Academy of Sciences, the Center for papyrology exists Numismatics, founded by Reinhold Merkelbach and currently (2009) directed by Jürgen Hammerstaedt.

Famous and important is the collection of the Oxyrhynchus papyri at Oxford, which contains over 400,000 pieces.

In the United States there are significant papyrus collections at the University of Michigan and at Duke University in North Carolina.

The Association Internationale de Papyrologues is an international association representing the interests and project support in the field of Papyrology.