Object of the Month

BKT X 3 (P. 5007) Crying singing, sad faces, that is how the city of Troy mourns its fallen hero Hector. His sister and widow lament his death, the father wants the corpse back. Troy – a name we instantly… Read More→

P. 982 What do rabies and firefighters have to do with the film Tenet (2020)? And why is this question papyrologically relevant? In the movie about the secret mission Tenet a Russian named Sator — founder of the company Rotas… Read More→

BKT I, S. 4–73 (P. 9780 R) The papyrus is fairly extensive, in relatively good condition and contains interesting texts on both recto and verso sides: texts from ancient scholars whom we knew to be prolific but by whom prior… Read More→

BGU II 676 (P. 3544) ATTENTION!! This piece from the Berlin Papyrus Collection is not papyrus. Instead, it is parchment! This „papyrus database“ comprises mostly papyri, but also parchments, paper, wood, pottery sherds, wax tablets and inscribed textiles. But what… Read More→

SB III 6219 (P. 10506) Mental arithmetic is difficult. Cheat sheets are therefore popular. Another way to avoid having to do mathematical calculations over and over again is to use boards with lists of multiplications and divisions that you can… Read More→

BGU III 874 (P. 2748) Through letters we learn a lot about the people of former times and gain insights into their everyday lives. However, many letters are difficult to understand, especially because of their lack of context, and the… Read More→

SPP III2.5 493 (P. 2675) Receipts are among the most common types of text that have survived on papyrus. Naturally, the Berlin Papyrus Collection also possesses many of these mostly very short and dry texts. Yet they contain a great… Read More→

P. 11793 Inconspicuous, but always good for surprises. A small papyrus fragment provides insights into literary production beyond the major centres and can score points with details that are otherwise barely documented, if at all. The papyrus comes from mummy… Read More→

BKT V.1 28-30 (P. 9739 R) It is well known that Helena was beautiful. However, she was courted by so many suitors that lists had to be drawn up in antiquity. One of them has been preserved on this papyrus,… Read More→

BKT VI 6.3 (P. 9051) „Resurrection Day“ – these words begin the first verse of the song on this writing and stand as the heading for what follows: Christ’s resurrection, the Easter. Many hymns have been handed down from the… Read More→