A comprehensive edition and commentary of 77 ostraka
Ostraka in the Collection of New York University is a comprehensive
edition and commentary of 77 ostraka, or potsherds with ancient texts
written on them, from Greco-Roman and late antique Egypt. Seventy-two of
these ostraca are housed in NYU Special Collections, originally
purchased by Caspar Kraemer in 1932, then the chair of the NYU Classics
Department. Although Kraemer advertised the imminent publication of the
texts in 1934 and later collaborated with the famed papyrologist Herbert
Youtie, neither completed the project. The ostraka in this small
collection span the 2nd century BCE to the 8th century CE and include
both Greek and Coptic texts. The majority, however, form a coherent
dossier of tax receipts related to mortuary activities in Upper Egypt
during the reign of Augustus (texts 7-70, dated from roughly the last
quarter of the 1st century BCE to 12 CE). The five ostraka published in
this volume not held by NYU include one that had been part of Kraemer's
original purchase but was subsequently lost (thankfully preserved in a
photograph in Youtie's archive at the University of Michigan), and four
ostraka now held by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The latter
four texts were purchased separately and published previously, but
clearly belong to the same group of texts. They are included in this
volume both for the sake of completeness and because the present authors
were able to improve the readings in light of the context provided by
the dossier as a whole. In addition to the scholarly edition of these
texts, the volume contains a full discussion of their provenance, the
taxes involved, the taxpayers and tax-collectors, and a ceramological
analysis of the sherds as media for these texts.
The book will be of interest primarily to specialists in papyrology and
scholars who study the economic history of the ancient Mediterranean,
Hellenistic Egypt, the Roman empire, and papyrology.
