Readers and writers in Roman Tebtunis
Although the percentage of functional literates always remained low, Roman
Egypt was a literate society. All manner of economic and social transactions
over the course of one’s life required written documentation: births and deaths
necessitated registration and receipts for payment of taxes marked the
intervening years of most people’s lives. Semi-literates and illiterates
participated in a literate system through networks of self-interest consisting of
family, friends, colleagues and paid scribes. Who were the literates that
perpetuated this system and how might we identify them from their
archaeological remains?
The dry climate of Egypt has preserved an unparalleled body of evidence
illuminating the daily lives of the land’s inhabitants. The number and variety
of sources provided by archaeological excavation has yielded a data set
unique in the Roman empire. Documentary papyri––letters, petitions, receipts,
census records, tax rolls, contracts––demonstrate a whole spectrum of writers
between those who can only sign their names with awkwardly formed letters
(“signature-literates”), and those who can write rapidly and gracefully on their
own behalves. The identity of readers is more difficult to recognize in the
material remains. Readers and writers may not have always been the same
people. In several historical societies, inability to write does not preclude
reading and it is also true that forming the shapes to write does not necessitate
comprehension. Readers and copiers of literary papyri are of special interest
and generate modern questions about audience for and reception of narrative
and poetic forms. Ancient Tebtunis has yielded a great number of literary
texts from the Graeco-Roman period, but attempts to link them to named
people who copied, owned or read them has proven difficult. The Tebtunis
papyri offer an opportunity to explore functional literacy and literary culture
in one provincial Roman town; the remarkable breadth of objects retrieved
from the same site provides a vivid context.
Roman Tebtunis
British papyrologists Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt excavated
Tebtunis on behalf of the University of California in 1899/1900. Over 30,000
fragments of papyri and 1800 other objects as well as a few architectural
elements from the site are now housed in Bancroft Library and Phoebe A.
Hearst Museum of Anthropology. Ancient Tebtunis is best known for the
Ptolemaic period papyri recovered from human mummy cartonnage and
(somewhat sensationally) from crocodile mummy wrappings in the Ptolemaic
1
cemeteries, but Grenfell and Hunt’s excavation of parts of the temple
enclosure, Roman period town and cemeteries also yielded a phenomenal
range of papyri and other finds. The texts and objects from these areas bear a
more direct relationship to their find spots than the texts from Ptolemaic
period mummies. Roman period official administrative documents were
excavated in situ (perhaps from the actual administrative office in which they
were stored), family archives were unearthed from private houses and priests’
texts from their quarters in the temple enclosure. Even texts discarded in
antiquity and excavated from trash heaps often bear relationships to the other
texts with which they were thrown out.
Excavators have continued to work at Tebtunis intermittently for the hundred
years since Grenfell and Hunt left the site. As a result, ancient individuals and
families known from Berkeley’s Tebtunis papyri are documented in over a
dozen collections world-wide and occasionally fragments of the very same
papyrus roll are distributed among multiple collections. The objects on display
here are remarkable for the roles they once played in the lives of individuals;
unless otherwise stated, all were excavated from the Roman period town.
Aerial view of Tebtunis (1934), temple enclosure at left,
Roman town at right
Courtesy of Tebtunis–Bagnani Archive
Nude male stone sculpture said to be from temple enclosure
I–III centuries CE
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Inv 6–20305
House-by-house census submitted by a woman in Tebtunis
Year 11 of the Emperors Septimius Severus, Caracalla and Geta (202/203 CE)
Twenty-eight surviving census records from Tebtunis provide vivid, matterof-fact descriptions of Roman period households. The documents describe
homes (sometimes in great detail) and name their tenants; the census records
also frequently give physical characteristics (such as scars or hair color), ages,
occupations and tax-statuses of household members and their relationships to
one another.
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The declarant in this document, Thenpetsokis, describes her house and its
occupants. Thenpetsokis is without scar, 54 years old; her son and guardian,
Ptolemaios, a keymaker is 33; her sister Helene, who is also the wife of her
son, is without scar and 54 [close-kin marriage was common in Roman
Egypt]; Helene has one daughter, Taorseus, who is 35; and additional children
with Ptolemaios [there is a break in the papyrus]; the slave of Thenpetsokis,
named Thermoutharion, is 8 years of age; and her niece’s slave, is named
Protus.
P.Tebt. II 480
Togate male limestone sculpture with pigment
I–III centuries CE
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Inv 6–20306
Limestone statue head with back support
I–III centuries CE
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Inv 6–20311
Ivory dice and inscribed game counter
c. I–II centuries; c. 30 BCE–70 CE
Games of chance were popular throughout the ancient world, and six-sided
dice and game counters have been excavated at sites throughout the Roman
Empire. In contrast to the longevity of dice, game counters are only attested
for about one hundred years (30 BCE–70 CE) and the rules of the game for
which they were used are largely unknown. Typically a portrait, sometimes
caricatured, occurs on the obverse and the name of the person portrayed is
inscribed on the reverse with a Roman numeral between I–XV. The reverse
here reads Bothuni[o?]n in Greek and is perhaps a nickname derived from
bothunos (“hole”).
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Photographed by Madeleine
Fang. Inv. 6–20515 and 6–20514
3
Wooden combs and ivory hairpins
I–III centuries CE
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Photographed by Madeleine
Fang. Inv. 6–20399, 6–20459, 6–20462, 6–20465, 6–20466
Coin depicting Serapis
Year 1 of Antoninus Pius (= 138 CE)
Serapis was among a number of deities worshipped in Roman Tebtunis
(P.Tebt, II 298, 299, 302). In contrast to his earlier iconography, Roman period
Serapis was depicted wearing a modius (grain measure) on his head,
symbolizing the bounty of Egyptian grain on which much of the empire was
dependent.
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Photographed by Madeleine
Fang. Inv. 6–22724
Illustrated ostracon (pot sherd) depicting Serapis
I–III century CE
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Photographed by Madeleine
Fang. Inv. 6–20563
Lead figurines of Serapis-Shay/Agathos Daimon and Aphrodite
I–III centuries CE
It may have been through his connection with plentiful grain that Serapis
gained association with the Egyptian god Shay and the Greek Agathos
Daimon (“Good Spirit”); both were divine entities of good fortune or destiny
commonly represented as snakes. One lead figurine on display here
demonstrates this synthesis, the second depicts Aphrodite, who was closely
associated with Serapis’ wife, Isis.
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Photographed by Madeleine
Fang. Inv. 6–20522 and 6–20508
4
Mummy portrait in tempera from Roman cemetery
c. 120–140 CE
Grenfell and Hunt recovered eleven mummy portraits from Tebtunis. They
form an important corpus because so few portraits in collections today are
archaeologically (rather than stylistically) provenanced. Removed from its
mummy upon excavation, this portrait depicts a youth wearing a white tunic,
mantle and, on his right shoulder, a purple clavus, the original purpose of which
was to mark the senatorial or equestrian status of elite Romans. The date of the
portrait is suggested by comparison to depictions of hairstyles of dated Roman
coins and imperial statues.
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Photographed by Joan
Knudsen. Inv. 6–21378
Field photograph of sculpture from Roman cemetery, 1900
The two pieces of sculpture at the left are now in the Hearst Museum (see
below). The female figure at the right is said to have been found together with
the male figure at the far left; however, Museum records indicate that she was
"left behind." The heads and other broken pieces of the Hearst Museum
statues may be yet identified in that collection.
Courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society
Sculpture from Roman cemetery
I–III centuries CE?
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Inv 6–20302, 6–20303
Basket from Roman tombs
I–III centuries CE
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Photographed by Madeleine
Fang. Inv. 6–20416
5
Fiber sandal from Roman tombs
I–III centuries CE
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Photographed by Madeleine
Fang. Inv. 6–20421
Language, literacy and education
Reading and writing require different skills; reading necessitates
comprehension whereas writing requires the development of a physical ability.
Although reading and writing were theoretically taught in tandem in the
Graeco-Roman world, proficiency achieved in either ability depended on access
to and length of education, individual initiative and, of course, practice. School
exercises and teachers’ models on papyri (P.Tebt. II 278 and 6–21416)
demonstrate the process of learning to write, but oral education has left no trace.
Nowhere are writers more in evidence than in the documents produced for and
housed in state record offices. In papyri from Roman Egypt, “illiterate”
(agrammatos) or “one who does not know letters” (mê eidenai grammata)
described persons who could not append a Greek signature to a document.
Because the signature had developed as a guarantee that contracting parties
understood the terms of their agreements, an illiterate or even “one who wrote
slowly” (bradeôs graphontos), relied on trusted family, friends, business
associates or professionals to write for them. Both public and private records
were stored in local and regional offices to ensure their validity; individuals and
families, even when illiterate, kept copies of important documents at home as
proofs. Thus, literates, probably less than ten percent of the population, served
as intermediaries in a complex web that, in theory at least, tethered each
individual to the state.
Perhaps as a result of the increasing systematization and centralization of record
offices in the Roman period, the use of demotic (the late stage of Egyptian
language and its script) declined in official spheres. Nevertheless, some
individuals opted to sign their names to Greek contracts using demotic.
Loan contract written in Greek, signed in demotic with its title
transliterated into Latin
Year 7 of Tiberius (20/21 CE)
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This contract records a loan made by a Roman citizen named Gaius Julius
Fuscus to two men named Psenkebkis and Marres. The scribe notes that he
writes on behalf of the two debtors “because Psenkebkis can only write
Egyptian and Marres does not know letters” (dia to ton men Psenkebkis
Aiguptia graphein, ton de allon mê eidenai) and the former signs on his own
behalf in unpracticed demotic (hand 2). Contrary to the conventions of the
demotic script, which was written from right to left, Psenkebkis writes his
name left to right in accordance with the direction of the Greek script. The
scribe who drew up the contract, Marepsemis son of Marepsemis (hand 1),
and the official who registered the agreement, Apion the regional scribe
(nomographos) of Tebtunis (hand 4), are both known from other texts as
working through the record office (grapheion) at Tebtunis (P.Mich. V). On
the reverse of this document are two lines: a fragmentary line of Greek may
indicate the date or the place where the record office copy of the contract was
stored; a second line records the title of the loan transliterated into Latin
letters (enegoisis Psengebgis Marheus). Once the loan was repaid, Fuscus
wrote an acknowledgment at the bottom (hand 5) and the document was
cancelled by drawing an X through the body of the document.
P.Tebt. II 586
Literates and illiterates in property division contract
Year 6 of Claudius, the 17th of the Egyptian month Epeiph (= 11 July 46 CE)
In this contract between a brother and his sister (acting with her husband as
guardian), the parties agree to divide three very precisely described pieces of
property in Tebtunis. Not only are the ages and distinguishing marks of the
contracting parties noted, but so are those of the literates who sign on their
behalves. The contract is written in four hands. The first probably belonged to
Kronion, who wrote the contract and registered it (on the bottom) on behalf of the
record office (grapheion). The second belongs to Psoiphis son of Onnophris, who
signed on behalf of the brother and his wife, “because they did not know letters”
(mê eidoton grammata). The third hand belongs to Marepsemis alias Kaleos, son
of Marepsemis, who signs for the sister and her husband Psenkebkis, “because he
only writes Egyptian and the other does not know letters” (dia to ton men
Psenkêbkin Egupt[ut?]ia graphin [sic] tên te allên mê eidenai grammata).
Following in a fourth hand is the signature of Psenkebkis in unpracticed demotic
script (P3-sr[-n]-gb). It is difficult to judge how the signatories might be related
to the contracting parties; but the variety of skill-levels in writing is readily
apparent––compare hands 3 and 4 to the more fluid hands 1 and 2.
7
P.Tebt. II 383
Slow-writers
Year 18 of Hadrian, 4th of the intercalary days (= 27 August 124 CE)
In this fragmentary document “Onnophris son of Pakebkis, priest of the
temple of the god Kronos at Tebtunis, aged about 60, having a scar on his left
wrist” leases a piece of land to “Taorseus daughter of Kronion, aged about
thirty-eight, with no distinguishing mark, with her guardian who is her
kinsman, Kollouthos son of Paopis, aged about sixty, having a scar on his
right knee.” Onnophris’s son, Pakebkis, signed the lease for his father (hand
4) because he wrote slowly (bradeôs graphontos); Onnophris’s own
subscription (hand 3) demonstrates the truth of the statement. The bottom
half of the text is too fragmentary to ascertain who might have written for
Taorseus and her guardian (hand 4), but it is a quick, fluid hand.
P.Tebt. II 311
Tools of the trade: Diorite stone scribal palette, wooden inkpot and
reed pens
I–III century CE
Writing in either Greek or demotic required more than learning the script,
orthography, vocabulary and grammar of either language, for the
mechanics of writing differed considerably. Greek was written left to right
with a metal-based ink and reed pen; demotic was “painted” right to left
with carbon-based ink using a rush brush.
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology,
Berkeley, and the Regents of the University of California. Photographed by
Madeleine Fang. Inv. 6–20427, 6–21419a, b, 6–21420, 6–20512
Teachers in the Tebtunis Papyri
II–III century CE
We know the names of (and sometimes more about) numerous teachers and
students from Graeco-Roman Tebtunis. Ptolemaic texts among Berkeley’s
papyri mention teachers (a didaskolos in P.Tebt. IV 1139 and a possible
pedagôgos in P.Tebt. I 112) and a Roman period text now in Michigan
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(P.Mich. II 123) records the sum paid to a female teacher (deskalos) named
Serapias for her writing services.
The letter on display here is addressed to Maron the kathêgêtes. A
kathêgêtes was an itinerant tutor, probably responsible for advanced levels
of education in towns removed from major educational centers.
P.Tebt. II 591
Reading and copying literature in Roman Tebtunis
To date, Tebtunis has yielded ninety-four Greek literary texts and 138 in the
Egyptian language. These texts include poetry and narrative prose as well as
commentaries and paraphrases, medical, astronomical and astrological
treatises, orations and reference works, magical and school texts. Although the
use of demotic declined in official spheres in Roman Egypt, demotic literature
flourished. No Egyptian-language literary papyri from Roman Tebtunis have
yet been recognized in Berkeley’s collection, but many such texts are now in
British, Danish and Italian collections.
By contrast, the Greek literary papyri now in Berkeley give us some idea of
what the residents of Tebtunis liked to read (or hear read to them). The neat,
even capitals (known as book-hands) used to copy texts indicate something of
the status of owning luxury books, although the less formal, cursive hands
used in documentary texts are in evidence as well. Accents and other marks in
the texts provide some insight into the process of copying (P.Tebt. II 432) or
reading (P.Tebt. II 265, 426, 428, 431, 432); variations from vulgate editions
attest diverse textual traditions (P.Tebt. II 265, 266).
There is little archaeological evidence to securely link literary papyri to their
ancient owners. Literary texts are occasionally found on the other side of
documents indicating that one or the other was considered waste paper by the
time the later text was written (P.Tebt. II 267, 268, 427). When the documents
are dated, such combinations of texts can give us an idea of the date the
literary text was copied. But only very rarely (and not yet at Tebtunis) can we
be assured that people named in the documents are the owners of literary
papyri. In the absence of archaeological and paleographical evidence scholars
must rely on circumstantial evidence to characterize owners of literary papyri.
Homeric variations: Iliad 2.556–576
II century CE
9
Homeric papyri are ten times more numerous than those of the next leading
author, Euripides. This is one of several large fragments from thirteen
columns of Iliad Book 2; it was once a finely copied book-roll. The preserved
text includes a number of variant readings including one (line 345) found also
in Plutarch. Several alterations such as the accent on line 562 were made by a
different hand and facilitated reading aloud.
P.Tebt. II 265, Column x
Reading Iliad 2.32–37, 46–52, 55–60
II century CE
The punctuation in this text provided practical reading tips: there is a rough
breathing mark over the alpha of aireitô (line 1 of the first fragment), and an
acute accent over the epsilon of mên (in the second fragment) indicates that
the following word is enclitic. A dot (or “high stop”) and a filler stroke in
the third fragment signals a full stop or period in Agamemnon’s speech to
the Achaians (2.58).
P.Tebt. II 426
Copying the Odyssey 24.501–508
II century CE
This tiny fragment of the Odyssey contains a number of points of interest. The epsilon
in the left-hand margin marks line 500 of the papyrus text and, because this was a
regular method by which scribes kept track of money they were owed, it indicates that
the copiest was almost certainly a professional scribe. As the epsilon occurs at line 504
of the standard critical edition of the Odyssey, we cannot know which four lines were
omitted (or if the scribe’s fee was prorated!). The acute accent and diaeresis on the first
word of our text aid pronunciation and the diagonal stroke almost touching the tau of
the sixth line signal the beginning of Odysseus’ speech to Telemachos.
P.Tebt. II 432
The true story of the Trojan War: Pseudo-Dictys of Crete, The Trojan War 4.9–
15
Early III century CE
10
Homer's account of the Trojan War was not the only one circulating in antiquity. By
the Middle Ages the most popular description of the war was based on a Latin text
describing itself as a translation of an eyewitness account given by Dictys of Crete.
According to the prologue, Dictys fought against the Trojans and later recorded the
war (in the Phoenician alphabet) on sheets of bark that were placed in his tomb upon
his death. A thousand years later in the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, the
prologue continues, an earthquake opened the tomb and the sheets were discovered
and transliterated into Greek and subsequently translated into Latin.
Until the discovery of the text on display here, modern scholars had been content to
assign the story a medieval date; however, this text proves that the original
composition was written no later than c. 250 CE. Although criticized by modern
scholars as “a dreary chronicle,” it was precisely the author’s claim to eyewitness
status and the matter-of-fact reporting style that ensured the popularity of the
account in medieval Europe.
P.Tebt. II 268
Pindar, Olympian Odes 9.109–114 and 10.1–12
I or II century CE
P.Tebt. II 684
Euripides, Hecuba 216–231
Late I or early II century CE
P.Tebt. II 683
Medical texts
In Tebtunis, as elsewhere in the Roman world, aspects of what is now
considered religion, magic and even cosmetology were indistinct from medical
practice. Priests frequently played the role of physicians; medical prescriptions
frequently include spells to be recited; kohl used to line the eyes protected
against certain eye diseases.
Fourteen medical texts used in Roman Tebtunis have been published to date,
three of which are in Egyptian language. The published papyri witness the kinds
of medical texts residents of Tebtunis may have found useful in the I–III
centuries CE. Berkeley’s collection contains six Greek medical texts dating to
the II century and offers a fascinating glimpse of medicine in the historical
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moment before the writings of Galen became ubiquitous. At least three were
certainly discovered in the temple enclosure (P.Tebt. II 676, 677, 679)
suggesting that medical practice was among the functions of the temple priests.
In the Italian excavations of Tebtunis undertaken in the 1930s, objects
interpreted by the excavators as useful in the preparation and administration of
medicaments, were found in the temple precinct:
In the houses of the priests, who were also doctors, there were found
many medical prescriptions and wood pots for medicines, one still closed
and full of seeds. Adjoining were tablets on which medical prescriptions
were written.
–––– Carlo Anti, Illustrated London News, 30 May 1931
The great number of spoons and spatulas, glass bottles and wooden containers
excavated at Tebtunis in the 1899/1900 season may have been used to mix and
apply powders and oils used as medicaments or cosmetics.
Anonymous therapeutic manual
II century CE
This manual focuses on the practical application of medicine and
pharmacology against lung diseases. Fragments of this same papyrus
text are now in at least four different international collections,
poignantly illustrating the confusion wrought by multiple official and
unofficial excavations over the course of the last century. Isabella
Andorlini was able to identify fragments of at least eight columns of the
text on display (P.Lund I 6 + P.Mil.Vogl. I 16 + P.Tebt. II 677 + PSI
inv. 3054).
P.Tebt. II 677
Herodotus Medicus, On remedies
II century CE
Written on the back of an undated account, the contents of this fragment
concern the treatment of thirst. An excerpt containing the same passage
has survived in the work of Oribasius (Collectiones medicae 5.30.6–7),
where he cites Herodotus Medicus as the author.
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P.Tebt. II 272v
Anonymous treatise of astrological medicine
II century CE
References to premature birthing (ômotok…, line 11) and embryotomia
(line 14) indicate the medical content of this unedited text; the presence
of the planet Venus (Aphrodeitê, line 9) signals its astrological
character.
P.Tebt. II 676
Illustrated medical text
II century CE
On display here is the earliest example of the genre of illustrated herbals to
survive from the ancient Mediterranean world. Each section is prefaced with
the name of a plant followed by a color illustration and a description of its
medical properties and those medicinal preparations that might be made from
it. Fragments now in Oxford also belong to the same roll (P.Tebt.Tait 39–42).
P.Tebt. II 679
Wooden box with lid, three bronze instruments, two glass vessels and
spoon
I–III centuries CE?
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,
and the Regents of the University of California. Photographed by Madeleine
Fang. Inv. 6–20378, 6–20474, 6–20476, 6–20478, 6–20374, 6–21424 and 6–
20537
Papyrus amulet against fever
III century CE
An inverted triangle is formed by a magical word, like modern
abracadabra) repeated with the successive omission of the first and last
letters, reading the same across or down one side and up the other. The
text below the triangle asks a deity called Kok Kouk Koul to save a
woman named Tais “from every shivering fit, whether coming every
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third day, fourth day, daily, every other day, or coming at night, or of
other type(?).” Recent studies have correlated the variety of fever
symptoms (described by this and other amulets) to different strains of
malaria in an effort to discern mortality patterns and causes of death in
Roman Egypt.
P.Tebt. II 275
Five faience Bes amulets
I-III century CE
Representational amulets were another means of defense against medical
(and other) dangers for the residents of Roman Tebtunis. The Egyptian
god Bes was the preeminent protector of children and pregnant women.
Courtesy of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology,
Berkeley, and the Regents of the University of California. Inv. 6-20539
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