PAPYROLOGICA BRUXELLENSIA — 31 — DOCUMENTS FROM BERENIKE VOLUME I GREEK OSTRAKA FROM THE 1996-1998 SEASONS Roger S. BAGNALL Christina HELMS Arthur M. F. W. VERHOOGT BRUXELLES Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth 2000 DOCUMENTS FROM BERENIKE VOLUME I GREEK OSTRAKA FROM THE 1996-1998 SEASONS FONDATION EGYPTOLOGIQUE REINE ELISABETH PAPYROLOGICA BRUXELLENSIA Etudes de papyrologie et editions de sources publiees sous la direction de Jean BINGEN D/2000/0705/1 PAPYROLOGICA BRUXELLENSIA — 31 — DOCUMENTS FROM BERENIKE VOLUME I GREEK OSTRAKA FROM THE 1996-1998 SEASONS Roger S. BAGNALL Christina HELMS Arthur M. F. W. VERHOOGT BRUXELLES Fonda rioN Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth 2000 Copyright ° 2000 Roger S. Bagnall, Christina Helms, and Arthur M. F. W. Verhoogt PREFACE The texts published here constitute the bulk of the written material found in the excavations at Berenike on the Red Sea, conducted by the University of Delaware and the University of Leiden under the direction of Steven Sidebotham and Willemina Wendrich. We are grateful to them for the invitation to work on these documents and much practical assistance. Inscriptions from the site and its environs are published elsewhere in the preliminary archaeological reports (references to which are given in the bibliography at the end of the Introduction). A few scraps of papyrus were also found in 1997 and 1998. Excavations at Berenike are continuing, and we send this publication to press after the 1999 season, in which a modest number of additional texts relevant to the groups appear ing here were found. We have decided to do so, rather than wait and produce a thicker volume, both because of the interest of the distinctive material involved and because we hope in publishing later finds to benefit from discussion of this first installment. In a few cases, however, we have used information from the 1999 finds in our commentary. We studied the ostraka initially from color slides (see below) and from drawings made on the site; Helms was able to see the 1997 original ostraka in 1998, although some had suffered severe degradation from the outward migration of salt since their finding. She was also able to read the 1998 finds in the field. The other authors have worked entirely from the images and drawings. The archaeological reports contain full acknowledgment of the financial support which has made possible the excavations. Here we wish to record our thanks for assistance from the Stanwood Cockey Lodge Foundation of Columbia University, which has paid for duplicating and digitizing the color slides of the ostraka. The digital images have been invaluable in our work, particularly with some of the more difficult texts. Rather than print plates in this volume, we have put all of the digital images on the Web for consultation. The URL for these images is (as of January, 2000) http://www.Columbia, edu/dlc/apis/berenike. With the rapid development of Web technology, it is difficult to be sure that this address will remain valid indefinitely; if it should at some point be found not to work, the user is advised to go to the Columbia University Web site and search for Berenike. Higher-resolution images can be obtained on request from the authors. We are indebted to audiences at Princeton University, the Institute of Classical Studies, London, and the University of Michigan for valuable comments and suggestions in response to preliminary presentations of the material, and we thank Peter Brown for the invitation to speak at Princeton, Dominic Rathbone and Jane Rowlandson for the opportunity to do so in London, and Traianos Gagos for the occasion in Ann Arbor. We are also grateful to Jean Bingen, Adam Bulow-Jacobsen, Lionel Casson, Helene Cuvigny, Nico Kruit, and Klaas Worp for reading a draft of this volume and making a number of suggestions to improve the texts and introduction. As usual, the authors’ remaining fail ures of inattention or stubbornness are not to be laid to the charge of these benefactors. We recommend O.Ber. I as the abbreviation for this volume. December, 1999 Abbreviations Papyri and papyrological tools arc cited according to J. F. Oates et al., Checklist oj Editions of Greek and Latin Papyri, Ostraca and Tablets, 4th ed. (BASP Suppl. 7, Atlanta 19*42). An updated version can be consulted on the Web at the following address: scriptorium.lib.dukc/papyrus/tcxts/checklist.html. A list of literature cited by author's name and date of publication is given at the end of (he introduction. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface v Introduction 1 1. The archaeological context 3 2. The groups of ostraka ..... 4 Date of the ostraka 7 3. The place of the ostraka in the customs process 8 4. The officials ................................................... 11 5. Goods and measures 14 6. Personal names 24 Bibliography .......................... 33 Note on editorial procedure ... 34 Texts, Translations, and Notes 35 Indexes 75