The Leyden and Stockholm Papyri - University of Cincinnati

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
question in both other classical sources and in more recent reference
works. In keeping with its more popular intent, Caley did not
use line numbers in his translation and I have instead provided a
materials index which is correlated with the recipe numbers,
though these do not necessarily coincide with those used by Halleux
due to differences in opinion on how to divide up the original texts.
! Though nowhere near as thorough as Halleux’s lexicon, this
index should at least give the reader a bird’s eye overview of the
breath of materials cited in the papyri, as well as their frequency of
use. Indeed, it reveals that 105 materials of mineral origin are mentioned,
88 of plant origin, and 16 of animal origin. Among the most
frequently cited in the mineral category are alum, copper, crystal,
and gold (though often as a color rather than as a material),
whereas alkanet, archil and especially vinegar are the winners in
the plant category, and urine and wool in the animal category.
! As may be seen from a reading of Caley’s brief notes and a
glance at Halleux’s lexicon, there are still several materials mentioned
in the papyri which have not been unambiguously identified
and which present a problem when sorting them into the categories
of mineral, plant or animal. Their proper identification is surely
a research problem worthy of pursuit by some future chemical
or botanical archeologist (34). Perhaps the most pressing of these
is the problem of unambiguously identifying the naturally occurring
crystal used in so many of the recipes for the imitation of
gems and precious stones (35). In addition, there is also a need to
create a list of synonyms, since there is little doubt that the same
material is often cited under a variety of alternative names.
! What else remains to be done? To the best of my knowledge
no one has attempted so far to try and replicate most of these
recipes in the modern laboratory. While those involving the dyeing
of wool with extracted plant pigments would probably prove unexceptional,
those involving the dyeing of crystals are certainly worth
looking into (36). Likewise, to the best of my knowledge, no
one has so far attempted to correlate the recipes with the composition
of actual surviving Egyptian artifacts from the Greco-
Roman period in order to determine whether they had widespread
application or were simply unique to the original owner of the pa-
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