A Fragmentary Letter of the Early Middle Kingdom

Over the past half-century the publication of Egyptological documents of whatever kind has scarcely kept pace with their steady accumulation, and those which belong to an earlier era of scholarship may be in danger of being forgotten. Some of the larger museums could indeed be said to stand in need of re-excavation, and even the lesser collections, such as those here in Copenhagen, may still produce an occasional find of surprising interest. The fragmentary letter published here (pl. V) was brought to my notice by Dr. Adam BiilowJacobsen, who discovered it among the Greek papyri in the University's Institut for Klassisk Filologi together with a smaller fragment and the whole of a stately funerary papyrus of the late New Kingdom.1 The bulk of the Greek material was purchased in Egypt around 1930, and, in his preface to the first volume of the serial publication, Carsten Hoeg wrote: Omnes igitur papyri nostrae mercatu comparatae sunt. Sequitur ut ubi loci sint inventae ignoretur cum ea quae papyropolae de hac re proferant nulla fere sint; velut papyros quasdam nostras quas alicubi in regione quae nunc Faijum vocatur scriptas esse constat venditor in vico Gebelen inventas inaniter affirmavit

Kingdom · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Geology · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Paleontology