BGU VIII 1856 + 1857 (P. 13788+13789)

A man is dismembered. A donkey and money stolen. More details are not known. Who committed this terrible crime? Why has the man been killed? Was it for the money? Or envy of owning a donkey? A papyrus from the Berlin papyrus collection reports on this criminal case.

The papyrus comes from papyrus cartonnage. Papyrus cartonnage was used during antiquity to shape mummy masks, which later on will be painted. Old, already inscribes papyri whose texts were no longer needed were often used to produce this cartonnage. So were the masks salvaged in Abusir el-Meleq. Abusir el-Meleq is a village in the east of the Nile south of Cairo, where systematic excavations were carried out at the beginning of the 20th century, during which much mummy cartonnage have been discovered. From this cartonnage the papyri could be removed so that the texts could be read again. This is also the case with the fragment we are looking at now.

The upper area of the papyrus is well preserved while the lower third is missing larger pieces. Another papyrus was subsequently glued to the right edge. However, this one is not related to the content of the first papyrus. Both carry a big and neat handwriting, but were not written by the same author. Red traces are visible on the lower right edge of the papyrus on the left. These traces, which are only recognizable in some places, are due to a stamp that was pressed onto the papyrus over 2000 years ago. As the text was an administrative matter, the stamp may have had the meaning that the content had been processed, clarified and thus completed. The papyrus was therefore part of an administrative act.

This is also indicated by the papyrus glued to the right side. This gluing together of individual documents is comparable to filling files in a folder nowadays. The papyrus glued to the right includes 21 lines documenting an unpaid lease. Nevertheless, it contains neither a date nor a location. A woman took over the lease after the passing of her husband. However, she paid neither the rent nor the public dues. The property owner then instructed the meridarch (an administrative official responsible for a district) to collect the outstanding lease. He, however, has not yet complied with the request. As a result, the property owner submits a new request to the meridarch for the outstanding lease to be collected.

However, our focus is on the left papyrus. This text is a fragmentary petition. It comprises 22 lines in Greek writing and originates from the middle of the first century BC. The content of the text revolves around a murder that is reported to the authorities. The siblings of the murdered man made the complaint.

The murdered man had left for an appointment on the day of the incident, but was, as agreed with the siblings, set to return that same day. As he did not return the siblings started a search and found his dismembered body on a path between the villages Tebetny and Kaine. These were located in Heracleopolites, an ancient district in the south of Cairo and the east of the Nile. After the body was found, it was also discovered that the deceased had been robbed of his possessions, consisting of 100 silver drachmas and a donkey. Based on the events, the siblings of the deceased wrote the report we know today. In it, they not only describe the events, but also ask for the perpetrator to be found and punished.

Unfortunately, we do not know whether the perpetrators of this hideous crime were found and convicted. No other documents relating to this murder have survived. However, thanks to this papyrus, we know that the authorities recorded and processes the report. The red stamp and the gluing together of the two documents indicate this. The fate of the stolen donkey also remains unclear.