Archiv des Autors: Marius Gerhardt

SB I 2639 (ÄM 11851) Two women, a baker and a mummy? What was their relationship? Whose mummy is it? The text on this unusual wooden tablet raises many questions, only a few of which can be answered. But at… Read More→

UPZ II 209 (P. 5849 + P. 5850) War costs money. So it is not surprising that among the many papyri in the Berlin Papyrus Collection there are also texts dealing with the payment of mercenaries. In addition, the text… Read More→

SB I 3447 (ÄM 13353) A gravestone with instructions for transporting the deceased? That is unthinkable today. In Roman Egypt, however, instead of gravestones, wooden mummy labels were often used, attached to the mummy before it was transported to the… Read More→

P. 6870 V + P. 14097 V What did music sound like in ancient times? What melodies were sung? We know very little about this. Because even in antiquity, songs were mostly passed on orally or only the lyrics were… Read More→

P.Schubart 22 II (P. 13932) Misoumenos – „The Man She Hated“ sounds almost like the title of a movie. However, it is the title of a work by the Greek poet Menander, a small excerpt of which has survived on… Read More→

T.Berl.Möller 125 (ÄM 11843) It was an ancient Egyptian custom to provide mummies with a small tablet that gave information about the deceased. At first, one would not expect such a mummy label for a Christian. However, several examples have… Read More→

SB I 1206 (ÄM 11826) From the 1st century AD at the latest, it was customary in Egypt to attach small wooden labels to mummies that were inscribed in Greek and/or Demotic. This custom continued to enjoy great popularity in… Read More→

PGM XXI (P. 9566 V) Magic with snakes and frogs? Both appear as parts of magical recipes, whereby the animals are sometimes threatened with a very drastic fate. It is quite different in the papyrus text presented here, in which… Read More→

BGU II 387 (P. 7083) A crocodile with a falcon’s head – in this mixed form we encounter a manifestation of the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek, as he was worshipped under the name of Soknopaios as an oracle and healing… Read More→

P.Berl.Frisk 5 = SB V 7519 (P. 13921) Business was also done in antiquity. On papyri, parchments and ostraca countless texts survived that show the business acumen of the people of that time and provide insights into these aspects of… Read More→