Papyrus in Classical Antiquity : An Update uch, happily, is the continuing pace of papyrological work that often the ink is hardly dry on a publication belore additional relevant material appears in a new document or a new study. It ‘comes as no surprise, therefore, to find Uhat in the ease of my Papyrus in Classical Antiquity (hereafter PiCA) there are already items to be added to the Supplement (Pap. Brix. 23, 1989; hereafter Supp.). As it will obviously be some years yet hefore the accumulation warrants the publication of a Second Supplement, I bring the record up to date for the present by reporting here all the post-1989 items, plus a few overlooked older ones, that have come to my attention PICA pp. 56 (Supp. pp.9-10). «Papyrus... is one of the most characte- istic aquatie macrophytes in tropical Africa, where it covers large areas Uganda and the Sudan around Lake Victoria and Nile basins [as well 1s in] Zaire and Botswana. Recently papyrus has been shown to be ‘among the most productive plants*— F. M. Muthuri aad J. 1. Kinya- mario, Beonomie Botany 43 (1989) 23. In Review of Palaenbotany and Palynotogy 47 (1986) 89-95 A. Bein land A. Horowitz report that samples from boreholes reveal that Cype- rus papyrus and Phragmites australis «constitute{a] the major part of ‘the marsh vegetation in the Hula swampse (p. 92). Acecrding to radio- carbon dating + Cyperaceae hecame dominant [in Hula] some 3000 yrs ago... According to [another] figure, the age for the starting point of the Cyperaceae dominance is some 3800-5400 yrs ago (pp. 93-94). Contemplating «the great dominance of papyrus and its rapid spreading in the last few thousand years», the authors observe that othe reason for this could he either natural or human-induced». An example ‘of the former might be related ta the early Holocene connections of the Nile with the tropical Afeican lakes. Among the latter — +as a conse- ‘quence of human inhabitation in the area» — they cite the possibility ‘that » papyrus was brought and planted in the Hula by the Egyptians, ‘who ruled and inhabited the region... Several Egyptian settlements are known from Israel as early as the First Dynasty (Early Bronze Ib), 308PAPYRUS IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY some 2800-3000 yrs B.C.... The Galilee was thought to have been sett- led by the Egyptians in the Barly Bronze times but the suggested locali ties have never been excavated. Once introduced into the area the Papyrus started its rapid spreading and soon became the dominant plant in the Hula marsh» (pp. 89, 94-95). PICA pp.9, 85. When did the Assyrian court begin to write on papy- rus’? Asking the question again is prompted by a passing reference in a recent paper by J. C. Greenfield: Of Seribies, Seripts and Languages», Phoinikeia Grammata, Lire et écrire en Méditerranée (= Collection d'étu- des classiques 6. Namur, 1991), pp. 177-78. He writes, «From the time of Tiglat-pileser III [744-727 B.C.] we have the well known reliefs of two scribes recording booty... One seribe is writing in cuneiform, pro- bably on a wax coated wooden or ivory board ... the other is an Aramaic seribe with a leather or papyrus rolls ‘Those Nineveh reliefs are indeed well known — since the mid-19th century, in fact — and they have heen cited from time to time in discussions of ancient writing, According to D. J. Wiseman, Iraq 17 (1955) 12, » papyrus (ai’ary) ... was known in Sargon’s reign» (721- 15 B.C.), but there is no documentary evidence to help us decide whe- ther the serolls depicted on the earlier reliefs were made of leather or of papyrus. Sharing the common misconception about the tensile strength of papyrus, Wiseman added, «The way the partly rolled scroll hangs may favour leather rather than the more delicate papyrus. That argu- iment, as we know, is based on a false assumption about papyrus: cf. now also T. C. Skeat’s revent report, quoted below p. 316. PICA p.11 (Supp. pp. 10-12). On the relations between Minoan Crete and Pharaonie Egypt, information from Egypt is presented in 8, Wachsmann, Aegeans in the Theban Tombs (Orientalia Lovaniensia Ana- lecta 20, 1987); see especially Chapters III, IV and VII. Did Cyperus papyrus grow in Minoan Crete? Uncertainty appears to be leading to growing confusion and inconsisteney in recent literature ‘on the Aegean in the Bronze Age. Examples are to be found in J. L, Crowley, The Aegean and the Basl: An Investigation into the Transference of Artistic Motifs between the Aegean, Egypt, and the Near East in the Bronze Age (Jonsered, 1989). On p. 77 the author reports the use of the Egyptian papyrus motif as far away as Byblos and Mari in the eigh- B.C.; she also cites, but takes no position on, Warren's 309articles on papyrus in Crete. But on p. 185 she writes, « Since it is pos- sible that [the plant] grew in the Aegean in the Bronze Ages, she treats ‘the papyrus not as a motif transferred from Egypt but as among + the ‘ordinary flora found in the Aegean and in eastern lands. On pp. 209-14 ‘we find the papyrus design found in eastern objects of the second mil- lennium B. C.— two objects from Syria, three Ugarit pendants and Nuzi pottery — classed as a «foreign motif in the indigenous style. And on p.231, regarding a dagger from Myconae of ¢. 1500 B.C., we read, » The Egyptian papyrus motif has been accepted into Aegean art [as an] incorporated clement», Some reservations about the categories are also expressed in the review in AJA 95 (1991) 347-48, to a lesser extent in CR. R, Sallares, The Bevlogy of the Ancient Greek World (Ihaea, 1981) 1-25 doubts ¢that papyrus was cultivated in the Aegean in the Bronze Ages. PICA pp-21-22. «Recently the disappearance of fuelwoods in many central African countries, e.g, Rwanda, has stimulated investigations into the use of papyrus as an alternative source of fuel. However, none ‘of these investigations has led to exploitation of papyrus on a large scale» — Muthuri and Kinyamario, loc. cit. 24 Recent experiments in East Africa highlight the nutritive values of papyrus grourd up and fed to animals. ‘The flowery heads, or umbels, are richer in proteins; «digestibility of papyrus is, however, higher in culms than umbels. Both the crude protein and ruminal dry matter digestibility decrease with increasing age of the plant. Values for crude protein and cuminal dry matter digestibility are similar to those reported for the range grasses that constitute the greatest percentage of forage in East Africa. In general, papyrus has some grazing potential ‘and could be used as fodder especially in the dry season when other forage is scarce and of low nutritive values — ibid. 23. PICA p.28, C. Picealuga, in Proe. XVIII [1986] Congr. 11, p. 488.29, remarks, «A Lewis, che considera «sheer fantasy to depict the papyrus as the characteristic Egyptian cereal , sfugge completamente I'ideolo- 4gia sottesa alla contrapposizione papiro(spiga.¢ This misses the central point, which is that the comparison wheat/papytus is not a true ana- logy, but a distorted one. In the e ideology » of Greek superiority lies the motivation for the distortion 310PAPYRUS IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY Supp. p.14. In a letcer to me John Rea writes, «The note ... under “Papyrus mats’ suggests to me that the man was using papyrus rolls, sinee that is what ujfaovs means, to sleep under, rather as the down- ‘and-outs in modern cities sleep under newspapers. ‘The context of the citation is inadequate for a firm conclusion, but Rea's suggestion deser- ves to be entered ints the record, PICA pp. 201 (Supp. p14). La Sicilia of 2 Oct. 1989 (kindly called to my attention by William Brashear) reports the expansion af Corrado Basile’s papyrus enterprise in Syracuse into a small papyrus museum, ‘Among the instructive exhibits are three small papyrus boats ilustra- ‘ting how the stalks were lashed together to create a floatable, passen- gercarrying erat PICA pp. 36-69 (Supp. pp. 15-88). The visitor to the papyrus museum in Syracuse is, upon request, shown how Basile, following the generally accepted interpretation of Pliny's account, constructs a sheet of papy- rus. To obviate gaps aetween adjacent strips Basile overlaps the edges slightly; whether the strips of ancient papyri were so placed is a mooted question Similar overlappingis practised by Hassan Ragab in Cairo. He offers 1 description (with photographs) and evaluation of this process in Proc. XVII {1983} Congr. Il, pp.515-19. He reports further (again with pho- tographs) in Proc. XVIZT [1986] Congr. 1, pp. 513-19. There we may note especially (p. 517), «great eare should be taken in the selection of the stalks... Bent, distorted, bruised stalks are eliminated since, when sliced, they yield spotted and stained strips. Tn Fuphrosyne 16 (1988) 328-28 A. A. Nascimento describes experi- ments in papyrus manufacture carried out by students on the island of Madeira, ‘The initial stimulus was the reading of Pliny's account, the ‘method employed essentially that of Ragab. The report claims that stalks harvested in the winter produce lighter-colored papyrus. It will he interesting to se if this finding is replicated elsewhere. In the letter mentioned above Rea writes, «Is it possible that sealas tabernae librariae in Cic, Phil. 2.21 is just a corruption of sealarum tene- bras as in Mil. 409 I think itis a bit hard to envisage a bookshop with aut‘enough stairs or steps of any sort to provide a refuge from a bloody ‘gang. ‘These sealae sonnd to me more like the steep alleyways which lead up out of the forum onto the slopes of the surrounding hills ‘This interpretation of scalas is attractive, and the correction to seala- ‘rum not too difficult, but I find the rest of the postulatsd emendation, especially the total elimination of lébrariae, hard to take. If the book~ shop were located on one of the uphill alleyways, it could easily have had a flight of stairs to an upper level (plus, possibly, stsirs to cellar), In JJP 19 (1983) 97-100 John Rea offers a new interpretation of otisyrian, a term designating an agent who, in a number of papyri, is found practising extortion. Instead of taking the noun to denote a col- lector (presumably from Latin colligere), Rea derives it from ozAdo and sees it as a Greek rendering of Latin glutinator. Rea then extends the meaning of the word to that of filing clerk, who (infer alia, we must suppose) organized fomoi synkollesimot. « If, then, xoddyeiaves were the filing clerks of the military police, they clearly had opportunities to abuse their positions by receiving bribes for the insertion or deletion of ‘The equation xol2yelo = glutinalor is attractive, but I find the thread from gluer to filing clerk to extortioner rather thin. On present evidence T incline to think: non liguet, ‘The Hendriks Method From the periodie reports of work in progress issued from the Istituto «G. Vitelli» in Florence by Paola Pruneti Piovanelliit appears that 1 H. M. Hendriks has ended his work on papyrus manufacture. (A direct inquiry addressed to Dr. Hendriks has elicited no reply.) If that is so, ‘what may be the last report aiming to validate his metkod is the «ana- tomisch-morphologische Studie published in ZPE 76 (1989) 394, Such an analysis by microscopic examination has been a desideratum fever since Hendriks first demonstrated that a sheet of papyrus could be constructed by the «peelings method. (The microscopic examination reported by J. Irigoin ef al. in Proc. XTV [1974] Congr. pp.7-9 deals only with the matter of glue between the two layers.) 312anrigurry It may be significant that the analyses in the ZPE report are mainly of the fresh papyrus plant, not of ancient papyri (ef. below, p. 314). However, I perforce leave to those who are qualified the consideration ‘of such technical and botanical elements of the report. (Hassan Ragab informs me, per epist. 1.1.92, eof course I do not agree with their fin- ddings®, and he adds that he is preparing an answer.) Following are my ‘observations regarding the points on which I do feel competent to comment. refer to the three authors of the ZPE report by the initials of their surnames, WMK (A. Wallert, B. M. Moeliono, J. D. Kruijer). According to WMK (p. 43) the peeling method results in a sheet of uneven thickness with a very irregular surfuce («viel unregelmassigere Oberflache. Also, viel ungleichmassiger in der Dicke») — hardly how a papyrologist would describe ancient papyri. WMK suppose that such ivegularities are not found in ancient papyri because those were polished to make them smooth and even, I think it doubtful that that ‘explanation wil find general acceptance. priori, it boggles the mind to think of every sheet in the mammoth production of the Egyptian papyrus industry being subjected to such treatment, Moreover, modern experiments have shown that simple pressure applied to the two cross layers suffices to produce smooth surfaces, It is true that in §§81-82 Pliny speaks of polishing rough spots and malleting to flatten wrinkles. But Pliny leaves little doubt that those treatments were not part of the normal process, but remedies for oceasional defects; the polished papy- rus, he adds, was less satisfactory for writing (ef. esp. PICA p. 62). Note also Ragub's observation, above p. 311, that spots and stains result only when damaged stalks are used. WMK propose (p. 44) to explain away the separate strips making up ‘ancient papyrus as resulting from the splitting of the peeled sheets when flattened under pressure. Any papyrologist knows that that supposition ddoes not explain the visible facts. Earlier Revel Coles had already poin- tedly observed, regarding a papyrus of c. A.D. 325, that «the strip construction (pace I. H. M. Hendriks...) of the left-hand kollema is par- ticularly clear» (P. Ory. LIV, p. 174) In Recent Advances in the Conservation and Analysis of Artifacts (Univ. of London, Tnstitute of Archaeology Jubilee Conservation Confe- renee, 1987) S. Sturman has a paper entitled « Investigations into the Manufacture and Identification of Papyrus», pp. 263-85. The first half 313of this brief paper is essentially a summary of the work of Ragab (whose assistance is acknowledged) in Cairo and Ba second half the author presents two new findings of interest : (1) Unpublished work done a little over ten years ago at the Univer- sity of Wisconsin (apparently in the forestry laboratory) supports ‘today’s consensus that the two layers of a papyrus sheet bond together without the interjection of an adhesive by the manufacturer. « Tests indicate that the bond is of a papermaking type. High hemicellulose content of papyrus may have a strong influence on tais bond s (2) Ancient and modern papyrus samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy at Johns Hopkins University. «ln the samples removed from ancient papyti, the parenchyma cells all appear very ordered and regular. Figure 3 is representative of the parenchymal eell characteristies of a specimen of ancient papyrus, Cyperus papyrus. Samples from modern sheets made of Cyperus papyrus exhibit a similar order and regularity of cells but the size of the cells is much larger than in the ancient sample (Fig. 4). Hepper and Reynolds [in 1967] noted a comparable phenomenon regarding a wider distance between fibrovas- cular bundles when comparing a sheet they had made of Cyperus papy- rus grown in a greenhouse in Kew with an ancient sample. ‘These reports lend support to my skepticism (above, p. 313) about the applicability of the WMK studies of modern papyrus samples. ile in Syracuse. In the ‘The Three-Layer Kollesis It seems in retrospect astonishing, but is nonetheless a fact, that for nearly a hundred years scores of papyrologists handling thousands of papyri failed to notice Kolleseis of adjoining sheets having three rather ‘than four layers of papyrus in the overlapping area. First signalized by Erie Turner at the Brussels (1977) Congress, the phenomenon has since heen described more fully by John Rea and Revel Coles. In the intro- duction to P, Harr. 11 212 (A.D. 322 or 323) the latter writes: «The papyrus is interesting for ils structure. There is an irregular kolesis visible on the front, running roughly through y of “Zovizav08 in 4, All the vertical fibres seen from the back belong te the right-hand sheet seen from the front, ‘The broken surface of the let-hand sheet on the front shows clearly that the vertical fibres were stripped (or omitted 3MASSICAL ANTIQUITY, in manufacture) for the last 3 em. or so for a smoother overlap ; thus the papyrus is only three layers thiek for most of the kollesis and not four. (The technical details discussed by A. Balow-Jacobsen, CE 53 (1978) 158-161, are different.) 11am inclined to think that this practice (which is outlined (by E. G. Turner] in Actes XV [1977] Congrés 1 (= Pap. Braz. 16), 20; and see (J. R. Rea] P. Oxy. LI 3624-6 introd. [quoted in the next paragraph)) may have been regular: ef, P. Harr. 11 2M4 and 216. Every kollesis which I have since examined is of this type. The feature is most easily seen (as in P. Harr. 11 212) where the overlapping horizontal fibres are damaged. An intact kollesis ean nevertheless exhi- Dit the feature clearly in oblique lighting. In such conditions the hori- zontal fibres may show an impression of vertical ridging, revealing the presence of vertical fibres behind, which stops an inch oF go from the right-hand edge of the kollema. ‘This only oceurs with kolleseis due to the original manufacture of the roll, and is not expected in the later stage type of join in a rduos omyrodtsjowuoe. © Rea’s earlier observation, referred to above, reads (P. Ory. LI, p. 61): «The declarations [of A.D. 350] are written on a fragment of a roll [The] joins, which are beginning to come apart, show a new phenome- rnon which has heen described in E, G, Turner, Reclo and Verso (Pap. Bru. 16), 20, with ref. to this papyrus. The right-hand edges of the sheets lack vertical fibres for a width of c. 2.5 em, the whole width of the rather irregular joins being ¢.2.75em, Evidently deliberate effort was made to reduce the bulk of the joins, whieh at their right-hand edges consist of only three layers instead of four. Experiment might reveal that this was a normal practice, since this particular roll gives no special impression of fine workmanship. No experiments have yet been conducted to separate original sheetjoins, but observations by me and Dr. Coles since the date of the remarks in E. G. Turner, loc. cit, have confirmed that manufacturers’ joins are often of this type, and no in- stance of « manufacturers” join with four layers of fibres has been detected » Imy itals.. Seo now also Coles, P. Oxy. LIV, p. 174. It may be merely coincidental that the above-quoted observations ‘were made on fourth-century papyri, since the last sentence implies that it was also made on papyri of other dates as well. This finding is obviously of major importance in helping to explain why the overlap of ‘two adjoining papyrus sheets was so flat as to present no obstacle to the ancient writer’s pen. It would, with a view to reaching a final eonelu- 315oyPTE GnECO-ROMAINE sion in this matter, be most helpful if editors of papyri routinely reported the number of layers in each Kollesis. Standard Sizes Even papyrus sizes have not escaped the attention of Dominie Rath- bone in his trinute study of the Heroninos correspondence. P. 335 of his Economic Retionalism and Rural Society in Third-Century A.D. Egypt (Cambridge, 1991) tells us that Birenaios, estate manager at Euhemeria, ‘drafted his accounts on the verso of old rolls of papyrus which were about 32cm. high, whereas Heroninos fat Theadelphia] wrote on both sides... of. olls which were about 21.5 em high. These figures accord well with those cited by E.G. Turner, Pap. Brux. 16, pp. 14-15 and in P. Yadin pp. 11-12. In Class. Phil, 88 (1998) 46-50 W. A. Johnson argues (with measure- ments of literary papyri) that sinee » the quality of the papyrus... is the focus of Pliny’s accounts, Pliny omitted the heights, which are irrele- vant, «becatse the width of the sheets and the quality of the papyrus surface are in fact very much the same topic. In ZPE 84 (1990) 297-98 T, C. Skeat adds a further observation to his ‘earlier description (Seritti... Montevecehi pp. 373-76) of the ease of rerol- ling @ papyrus volumen ‘Tassumed that a roll of papyrus, having been rolled up at the time of manufactare and kept constantly rolled up except when opened for the purposes of writing and reading, would have possessed (a] tendency to rall up, but of course I had no means of proving it. Now the proof hhas come ta ‘ight in a surprising way. Among the great find of papyri at Dishna, not far from better-known Nag Hammadi, were a number of papyrus roll. The owner of one of these rolls tried to unroll it, but found that the papyrus began to break. He thereupon immersed the roll in warm water, after which he found that he could unroll it without damage either to the roll or the writing. He left it unrolled, and five minutes later the roll had rolled itself up, It is surely remarkable that 1500 years or so after its manufacture a papyrus roll should still retain its capacity to rol itself ups. ‘Skeat goes on to reflect on the advantages of the roll’s continuous and overall display of the text that may be among the elements explaining ‘ewhy it took so long for the codex to replace the roll». 316PAPYRUS IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY PICA pp. 61 and 92 (Supp. pp. 32-83). P. Lond. 111 1236, published in BASP 28 (1981) 61, provides, as the editor (P. J. Sijpesteijn) notes, still another example from the Heroninos archive of piece of papyrus reused on the verso alter # ¢long interval» — in this case probably something aver a hundred years, (N.B. The date given in the heading — July 2, A.D, 264 — is that of the verso (= P. Flor. 11 233%), not ‘that of the reeto published in BASP.) PICA p.89. Belatedly I have become aware of the article of J. P. Wild in Antiquity 40 (1966) 139-42. It is there suggested that the criss-cross lines visible in the pre-Roman potin (also called speculum) coins found in southeast England resulted from the use of papyrus (the writing material, not the plant) in the creation of the coin mould, ‘A few years later, to test Wild's hypothesis, Erie Turner tried pres- sing papyrus onto clay, the presumed material of those coin moulds. Deseribing those experiments in D. Hill and M. Jesson eds., The Iron Age and Its Hill Forts (Southampton, 1971), pp. 129-30, D. F. Allen held ‘that they confirmed Wild's explanation: « Improbable as this process may sound, it is borne out by enlarged photographs of the coins, ‘These demonstrate tha: the graining ran right to the edge of the inden- tations, where It ceased... Although the graining gives a criss-cross effect, it can plainly be seen that all the threads on one side are parallel and that the threads in the other direction are showing through. Since papyrus was made by welding together under pressure two films from the reed laid in contrary directions this is exactly the effect produced by Professor Turner's experiments 6, In ANRW 11.29.2 (published in 1983), p. 968, D. E. Evans, writing on «Language Contact in Pre-Roman and Roman Britains, mentions briefly the possible relevance of the Uhesis advanced by Wild and Allen, (Evans is cited en passant by Alan Bowman in Literacy in the Roman World (= JRA Suppl. Series 3, 1991), p. 128.) But in the Oxford Jour- nal of Archaeology 5 (1986) 217 (a reference I owe to W. E. Metcalf, of the American Numismatic Society), R. D. van Arsdell explained why ‘Tumer’s experiments, far from supporting Wild, actually invalidated his proposal. «It must be stated categorically e, he writes, ethat the configuration of the erassed striations on the coins precludes the possi lity of papyrus use in the mould making process. The evidence may be seen by studying carefully the illustrations in Allen's article... Thus, the ‘east bronze coins of Kent currently afford no evidence for the existence 317of papyrus... an exotic material not known to have existed in Iron Age Britain from any other evidence» It should be added, however, that even in the absence of positive evidence there is nothing improbable in the notion that papyrus rolls may have been exported (from Gaul? Druid links ) to Britain prior to its annexation by the Romans. PICA pp. 98-94. In the printed abstract Sturman's paper (cited above, 1p-313) states, « When growth of papyrus ceased in Egypt, we lost not only the plant but also the closely guarded seeret (sic! but what about ‘the wall paintings in Egyptian tombs and Pliny’s account 2] of how the ‘writing material was made. This is at best unfortunate wording, at ‘worst incorrect. Most will, I think, read that sentence as implying that the manufacture of papyrus was ended in Lower Egypt by the disap- pearance of the papyrus plant. What happened was almost certainly the reverse: When papyrus, replaced by rag paper, cessed to be mant~ factured, the plant ceased to be cultivated and gradually petered ont. ‘That the conditions of Lower Egypt are — to this day — not hostile to the growth of the plant is amply demonstrated by Hassan Ragab’s recent ereation of a flourishing Cyperus papyrus plantation in the Nile near Cairo. PICA p.98 n.3 (Supp. p.37). In ZPE 88 (1991) 167-68 T. P, Brunner points out that yaprozoof in the Constantine Porphyrogenitus passage supports that resolution of the abbreviation in P. T#b, 1 112.62 (ct. PICA p.118 0.7). The City University of New York Nephtali Lewss 318