Reuniting Anastasia - The Center for the Tebtunis Papyri

Reuniting Anastasia:
P.bibl. univ. Giss. inv. 56 + P.Erl. 87
(with Some Notes on Other Erlangen Papyri)*
With plate XXVI
Todd M. Hickey (Berkeley, California)
For Professor Dr. Manfred Landfester
For over thirty-five years, it has been known that the papyrus collections at the
university libraries in Giessen and Erlangen have included papyri from the dossier
of the sixth-century Oxyrhynchite landowner Flavia Anastasia. 1 The Giessen
Anastasia papyri, which comprise the majority of the dossier, were acquired
through the Deutsches Papyruskartell (DPK) in 1910; they were purchased from a
certain Hagg Mahran, a dealer in Ashmunein. 2 Although the two Erlangen
Anastasia papyri were not acquired until a much later date (almost twenty-five
* The initial phase of my research on the dossier of Flavia Anastasia was generously supported
by Dumbarton Oaks. I remain grateful to that marvelous institution, and, for their kind assistance
in connection with my visits to Giessen and Erlangen, to Birgit Eickhoff, Sigrid Kohlmann, Dr.
Christa Frateantonio, Dr. Barbara Kuhn-Chen, Dr. Peter Kuhlmann, Dr. Christina Hofmann-
Randall, and, especially, Prof. Dr. Manfred Landfester. Prof. Alain Martin generously furnished a
copy of a paper still in press.
1 Cf. J. van Haelst, „De nouvelles archives: Anastasia, proprietaire a Oxyrhynchus,"
PapCongr. XI, 586-90. Anastasia papyri are also part of collections in Cairo (the Egyptian
Museum), Oxford (Papyrology Rooms, Ashmolean Museum), Ann Arbor (University of Michigan),
and New York City (Columbia University); the pieces in these last two locations were not
known to van Halest. An additional papyrus in Leuven was destroyed during the Second World
War; it was published by van Haelst from a photograph, „De nouvelles archives: Anastasia,
proprietaire a Oxyrhynchus," Cd'E 33 (1958) 237-42 (= SB VI9368).
2 H.G. Gundel, Papyri bibliothecae universitatis Gissensis: Eine Einfiihrung (Kurzberichte aus
den Giessener Papyrussammlungen 27), Giessen 1968, p. 5. They were part of the sixth lot
acquired by the DPK after the merger of its two Abteilungen in 1910, see A. Martin, „Les papyrus
d'Oxyrhynchus et le marche des antiquites (a la lumiere des papiers du 'Deutsches
Papyruskartell')," a paper to be published in the proceedings of 1998 British Academy symposium
..Oxyrhynchus: A City and Its Texts." The purchase price for lot 6 was 16.68 Egyptian pounds.
Martin's research indicates that Hagg Mahran (or „Hag Makran") was also the source for lot 33 of
the DPK's (..documentary") Abteilung A, which was acquired by Wurzburg in 1906.

200 Archiv fiir Papyrusforschung 49/2,2003
years later, in 1934) and came to the university through Carl Schmidt, 3 one of
them, P.Erl. 87, joins with a fragment in Giessen, P.bibl. univ. Giss. inv. 56. 4
The fragments' disparate acquisition histories might be seen as supporting
the notion that their separation occurred in antiquity. It is not difficult to imagine
them coming out of the ground as distinct pieces, or even being ..recovered" by
two different „excavators." 5 Conversely, one can envision scenarios in which
their papyrus was torn apart in the modern era. Very few of the Anastasia papyri
are intact, and many of them are small fragments, which could indicate an attempt
(or attempts) to boost profits by increasing the number of objects for sale. Yet if
the Anastasia papyri were torn apart in modern times, one wonders why joins are
not common in this dossier. 6 It is not certain, moreover, that the Erlangen
pieces ever went through the hands of Hagg Mahran. The ubiquitous Nahman
also figures in the history of the dossier, 7 and he was certainly known by
3
See P.Erl., p. v. P.Erl. 37 (cf. BL X 66) is the other Anastasia text in the collection. It is
unlikely to be a coincidence that Schmidt also provided the (now lost) Anastasia papyrus to
Leuven. L. Lefort, Les manuscrits coptes de I'Universite de Louvain, Louvain 1940, p. 1, states
that Schmidt ..declara avoir acquis ces pieces, au cours de ses voyages en £gypte, chez l'agent
consulaire allemand a Louxor," but as T. Reekmans, „The Destroyed Papyrus Lovaniensis Graeca
8bA," in Miscellanea in honorem Josephi Vergote, 504, notes, „It is not clear whether this
information refers to the Coptic literary texts, to all the Coptic papyri, or to the entire lot (including
the Greek documents)."
4
Van Haelst, PapCongr. XI, 587-88, did not identify P.bibl. univ. Giss. inv. 56 as part of the
Anastasia ..archive."
3
P.Oxy. XLIV 3204 (+BL VIII 267) is one of the few Anastasia papyri to derive from an
authorized excavation. Unearthed during Grenfell and Hunt's first season at Oxyrhynchus (1896-
97). it is a ..deed of surety," like the text appearing here; both papyri may have been archived (and
thrown out) together. For the connection between Grenfell and Hunt's excavations and the
Oxyrhynchus papyri that the DPK acquired on the antiquities market, see Martin, „Les papyrus
d'Oxyrhynchus." Of course the DPK obtained the Anastasia papyri now in Giessen a few years
after Grenfell and Hunt had left the site in 1907. Since the lot to which they belong was assigned
to Giessen on 6 July 1910 (so Martin, „Les papyrus d'Oxyrhynchus"), it would seem unlikely that
these pieces could have been spirited away during Pistelli's first season at Oxyrhynchus (February
-2 April 1910).
6
An observation based only, of course, on the material that is known to me.
7
It was from Nahman, who ..assorbiva quasi tutte le forniture dei contadini e trafficanti e
intermediari indigeni" (D. Morelli and R. Pintaudi, eds., Cinquant'anni di papirologia in Italia,
Naples 1983, p. 287, n. 2), that Bell acquired the Columbia piece (inv. 523) in 1930. For Bell's
report on Nahman's offerings, see:
http://www.Iib.umich.edu/pap/Michigan%20Papyrus%20Collection/Reports/1930/7_17_30_be
ll.html [24.vi.03].
The Anastasia papyrus was the first piece in lot II. It should be noted that it is an „outlier"
chronologically, dating to 15.V.571.
I have not discovered any evidence of contact between Hagg Mahran and Nahman [who died
on 12 March 1948, see R. Pintaudi, „Documenti per una storia della papirologia in Italia,"
AnalPap 5 (1993) 158, n. 6].
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one of
,4
'died
alia,"
T.M. Hickey, Reuniting Anastasia 201
Schmidt; 8 but Schmidt knew many dealers. 9
To return to less speculative matters: The joined fragments preserve the beginning
of a document. Present are its Christian invocation, chronological formulae,
and the name and description of its addressee, Flavia Anastasia; reference is
also made to her intermediary. The remains of the endorsement on its back reveal
that it is a surety, almost certainly a surety for some sort of enapographos. This
document (sub)type is a distinctive characteristic of the late Oxyrhynchite corpus
of papyri, 10 and it is well represented in the Anastasia dossier. 11 The text's orthography
is below the standard of the dossier; there is also a dating error (cf. n. 11. 5-
7 below). 12
The reconstituted text will appear as P.Anastasia 10 in my edition of the
dossier.
Pbibl. univ. Giss. inv. 56 (left frag.): 6.7 x 6.2 cm
P.Erl. 87 (right frag.): 10.2 x 12.3 cm
25.xi.591
PI. XXVI
On the Erlangen fragment, there is a vertical kollesis approximately 5.1-5.3 cm from the right edge
of the papyrus. In lines 3-8, a vertical stroke (I) approximates the break between the two fragments.
1 f ev 6v6|icm [tou KJupiou mi 8eo"jcotou 'It|0"ou XprjaTou tou
8eot> KCCI £amjp[oc,] "nuibv, paaiX-eiac, tou Geiotatou
Kal euaepeatatolu i\\i&v Seajiotou iieviattou) euepyetou
4 d>X.aouiou Maupiiceliou Neou TiPepiou tou aicoviou 'AKOUGtou
xai AutoKpatolpoc, etoc, beKa,xr\q, ujiauac, tou autou
euoePeotatou fjIp-Sv Secjcotou etoc, SEKOVCTIC,,
'A0d)p KT| iv8(iKtiovoc,) 'i. I vacat
8 See, e.g., S. Giversen, „Carl Schmidt und H.O. Lange," in Carl-Schmidt-Colloquium an der
Martin-Luther-Universitat 1988, Halle an der Saale, 54-58, concerning the Coptic Manichaean
material from Medinet Madi.
9 About Schmidt, H.O. Lange wrote, „Er ist ein sehr erfahrener Kaufer von Papyrus; er ist mit
alien Handlem hier [Cairo or Egypt] bekannt" (Giversen, „Carl Schmidt," 57). Part of the obituary
that Vergote wrote for Schmidt [Cd'E 13 (1938) 338] also seems worthy of repetition: „Un
souvenir inoubliable pour quiconque put y [Schmidt's apartment] penetrer...tous les tiroirs bourres
de papyrus, de parchemins, d'ostraca, et de bandelettes de momie aux inscriptions demotiques. Le
novice en egyptologie ne se represente pas autrement un bazar orientale. Schmidt etait en effet un
collectionneur passionnee et il rapportait encore autre chose de ses randonnees presque annuelles
en fegypte que les documents publies par lui personnellement. Abstraction faite de Londres et de
Paris, il foumit presque tous les musees d'Europe et plusieurs collections d'Amerique de papyrus
et d'ostraca demotiques, grecs et coptes.
10 For the enapographoi, see P.Oxy. LXVII 4615, n. 1. 6, as well as the discussion in T.M.
Hickey, „A Public 'House' but Closed: 'Fiscal Participation' and Economic Decision Making on
the Oxyrhynchite Estate of the Flavii Apiones," diss. Chicago 2001,100-7.
11 See already van Haelst, PapCongr. XI, 587.
12 Concerning P.Erl. 87, J. Rea wrote, „[t]he spelling is odd as well as the counting" (P.Oxy.
LVIII, p. 53).

202
12
Archiv fiir Papyrusforschung 49/2,2003
L Xaouict Avaaltacio: tfj evSoJjotdtn. eKko-
[oxpia Guyatpi tou x]f[

T.M. Hickey, Reuniting Anastasia 203
For illoustria, see J. Beaucamp, Le statut de lafemme a Byzance 2, Paris 1992,
12-13, and, concerning the acquisition of titles by women, 132-39.
9ff. For the restorations in these lines, cf. BL X 67.
11 There are traces underneath the omega-sigma of poleos and the delta of dia.
12 In the dossier, Anastasia's affairs are typically managed by a peribleptos
homes kai dioiketes (almost invariably someone named Phoibammon).
Exclusively here her agent or, probably more appropriately, intermediary, is an
endoxotato's, that is, someone who is her equal. Is this Anastasia's husband, a
sibling, or a colleague?
eX-: Presumably eAJXootpiou, cf. 11. 8-9.
Translation
"In the name of the Lord and Master Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, in the
reign of our most godly and most pious master, greatest benefactor, Flavius
Mauricius, New Tiberius, the eternal Augustus and Imperator, year ten, in the
consulship of our same most pious master year ten, Hathyr 28, indiction 10. To
Flavia Anastasia, the most glorious illoustria, daughter of Menas son of Eudaimon
of glorious memory, landowner here in the splendid city of the Oxyrhynchites,
through you, Flavius PN, the most glorious illoustrios..."
Back: "Surety for Philoxenos..."
Some notes on papyri in Erlangen
The 8. Internationale Konferenz fiir demotische Studien in Wurzburg afforded me
the opportunity to examine the two known Anastasia papyri in Erlangen and to
search for others in the collection. During my short visit, I was also able to reread
some of the texts that Schubart had published in P.Erl. My notes concerning
eleven of these texts follow. Since Schubart did not describe the physical
characteristics of the papyri, I have included any information of this nature that I
recorded during my visit.
P.Erl. 33
3.7 x 10.5 cm. There is a blank space (±3 letters) following Zcotqi in line 1.
2 Xoyiatfi [...-> Xoyiatfi ['Apoivoitou, cf. P.Grenf. U 79 i.l, ii.l (+BL III
71); P.Rain. Cent. 84.1, SB VI 9192.1. This supplement has been implied since at
least 1964 (J. Lallemand, L'administration civile de I'Egypte de I'avenement de
Diocletien a la creation du diocese, Brussels, p. 113, n. 4), but it seems to have
escaped the notice of the editors of the BL.

204 Archiv fur Papyrusforschung 49/2,2003
P.Erl. 56
11.7x9.7 cm.
3 Jtojtou "Ana ITvouOiou —> ] tonou ana IlajtvouGtou, cf. Timm 3: 1452,
4: 1680, 6: 2760. (For topos, see PMon. Apollo, p. 15 and n. 77.)
7 'ApKou —»'Apriout(oc,).
P.Erl. 64
9.2 x 8.6 cm. Lines 4ff. in a second hand.
Line 3 (not edited) reads: ] xp[u]aou vo^iojidtia [.
6 ]eqt oyaitepa tou rcapovtoc, [...—>] eypaya unep autou rcapovtoc,
[ypduuata un. ei86toc, (or similar).
P.Erl. 65
8.7 x 6.7 cm.
6 'ATttpouavavet -> 'Arctpouav 'Aet, cf. BL X 149. 'Aei is followed by faint
traces of 2-4 letters (not indicated in Schubart's transcription).
9 e A.eco9() —> evteuG(ev).
P.Erl. 67
34.4 x 19.6 cm, written with the fibers. There is a vertical kollesis 7.0-8.9 cm from the right edge
of the papyrus. New hands begin at two points not indicated by Schubart: AupfjA-ioi (1. 18) and +
&7cct Sicov (or 'Anaoicov, cf. BL XI 305; 1. 22).
18 drcoScooouev -» dnoSoocouev. For the orthography, cf., e.g., P.Hamb. I
5.21.
19K(al) -MKai).
P.Erl. 68
6.0 x 18.1 cm, written against the fibers. There is a horizontal kollesis just above the last line.
It seems probable that the tarsikarios who appears here (Damianos) is the
father of the one in Stud. Pal. DI 190 (Kosmas). The provenance of both of these
texts is the Herakleopolite (for Stud.Pal. HI 190, cf. BL VH1,436). Also note
Stud. Pal. Ill 562.2, but that text is from the Arsinoite.
2 Read (ytvetat) between oppu(^ov) and xpu(otou).
3 ]q tf|c, Jtapou(or| UT|v6]c, tfjc, 7iapou(ar| eyp(dq)T|) ".(nvoc,) 0a)(0) y iv8(iKt{ovocJ e.

T.M. Hickey, Reuniting Anastasia 205
P.Erl. 73
21.3x10.2 cm.
18 EV tfj autffj] -> EV tfj aut(fj).
24 Katayatm -> Katayyaico. For the orthography, cf. Stud. Pal. X 259.2, a
papyrus that likewise concerns Strategius paneuphemos (cf. J. Banaji, Agrarian
Change in Late Antiquity: Gold, Labour and Aristocratic Dominance, Oxford
2001, pp. 233-34).
29 xpuavou -> xpuoou.
P.Erl. 74
14.2x10.7 cm.
Line 2 begins: y]i(vetai), cf. BL JE 52 (as opposed to BL VHI 121).
12 . ,] Kai E7t£p(a>tT|6e!c,) —>ypa]tp(ev) mi Ejr,ep(a>tT|9ei &% djrn.Xi(otou.
19 Kai otpoPfiXcov -> Kai o"tqxu[cov 8£p.a/8ep.ata.
RErl. 78
8.3 x 6.7 cm.
Line 6 should read 'OjcjupoyxvcSv xaipEiv.
Line 8 should read EV tfj tpuyfn tou MEOOPT) privoc,.
Line 9 should read [xfj

206 Archiv flir Papyrusforschung 49/2,2003
P.Erl. 115
7.2 x 8.1 cm.
Line 2, iA.oKupi. () np np uup(ac,): ,Jst es ein Name?" and ..Myriaden passen
nur zu Geld; aber dpyup( ) kann man vorher nicht lesen" appear in Schubart's
notes, but iA.oKup{ou dpyup(iou) is certain. For the name Philokyrios, which is
highly suggestive of a slave (or freedman), see R.S. Bagnall, Egypt in Late
Antiquity, Princeton 1993,126 and n. 81.
3 yt(v£tai), pK uov(a) —» yi(vovtai) (Snvapiaw u.upid8£c,) pK uo(vai).
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