- Museum number
- EA10070,2
- Title
- Series: The London Magical Papyrus
- Description
-
P Leiden/London, recto cols. 4-7, verso cols. 28vo-30vo. Papyrus written with black ink; demotic text recto and verso: spells and recipes; Old Coptic glosses and Greek recitation.
On the recto are a series of spells and recipes arranged in twenty-nine columns written between ruled lines. These include spells for divination, love spells, poisons and spells of healing. On the verso are apparently discontinuous memoranda, prescriptions and short invocations.
Column 4 contains a spell for a revelation, including a recitation written in Greek that is to be read in the opposite direction to the demotic (4/9-19). This is followed by two further spells for visions. Column 5 contains a spell for 'a tested god's arrival', that is, for a vision in a dream. There follows a recitation in which the magician identifies himself with various magical names.
The remainder of the spells in this section of the papyrus is another 'inquiry of the lamp'.
Recto:
PDM xiv. 93-114 (col. 4/1-22): A Casting for Inspection (Horoscope).
PDM xiv. 115 (col. 4/23): Spell for Vision(?).
PDM xiv. 116 (col. 4/24): (Another) Spell for Vision(?).
PDM xiv. 117-149 (col. 5/1-33): A Tested 'God's Arrival'.
PDM xiv. 150-219 (cols. 6/1-7/34): An Inquiry of the Lamp (NB: this spell concludes on 10070/3, col. 8/11).
Verso:
PDM xiv. 1180-81 (col. 28vo/1-2): Fragment from Invocation.
PDM xiv. 1182-87 (col. 29vo/1-6): Spell to Cause Madness.
PDM xiv. 1188-89 (col. 30vo/1-2): Love Spell(?).
PDM xiv. 1190-93 (col. 30vo/3-6): Another Love Spell.
PDM xiv. 1194-95 (col. 30vo/7-8): Another Love Spell.
PDM xiv. 1196-98 (col. 30vo/9-11): Another Love Spell.
The spells are typical products of the syncretistic culture of Late Antiquity.
This very late demotic papyrus was sold in two parts in Thebes, the first part going to London and the second to Leiden, where it proved important in deciphering the demotic script, since the text contains glosses in a mixture of Greek and demotic characters now known as Old Coptic. The entire roll measured some 5 m.
Thompson's MS Catalogue: "Writing on both sides. recto (horiz. fibres) 10 cols. averaging 8 1/2 x 8 in. verso (vert. fibres) 9 small cols." [regarding all London fragments, 10070/1-3].
- Production date
- 3rdC (200-225 AD)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 28.80 centimetres (frame)
-
Height: 24.30 centimetres (papyrus)
-
Weight: 3854 grammes (in frame)
-
Thickness: 0.80 centimetres (frame)
-
Width: 91.80 centimetres (frame)
-
Width: 85.70 centimetres (papyrus)
- $Inscriptions
-
-
- Curator's comments
- Bibliography:
F.LI. Griffith and H.Thompson, 'The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden' (London, 1904);
translation: J.Johnson in H.D. Betz (ed.), 'The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells' (Chicago and London, 1986), 195-251 (= PDM XIV; spells on this section = PDM XIV, 93-219); pp. 200-1 (PDM xiv. 93-114); 201 (PDM xiv. 115, 116); 201-3 (PDM xiv. 117-49); 204-8 (PDM xiv. 150-231);
J.Tait, 'Theban magic', in S.P.Vleeming (ed.), 'Hundred-Gated Thebes: Acts of a Colloquium on Thebes and the Theban Area in the Graeco-Roman Period', Papyrologica Luduno-Batatva 27 (Leiden, 1995), 169-82.
Ein Gott 2015, no. 205, pp. 194-95.
I. Regulski (ed.), Hieroglyphs: unlocking ancient Egypt (London 2022), pp. 36-7
Quack, J.F. 2022. Altägyptische Amulette und ihre Handhabung. Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 31. Tübingen.
Recto: PDM xiv. 93-219 (cols. IV/1-VII/34):
J. Dieleman, 'Priests, Tongues, and Rites' (Leiden, 2005), 16, 32, 36, 41, 103, 123, 262, 297, 313 (PDM xiv. 93-114); 254 (PDM xiv. 115); 100, 297 (PDM xiv. 117-149); 39, 100, 119, 276 (PDM xiv. 127-137); 39, 53, 55, 68, 76, 101, 295, 297 (PDM xiv. 150-231).
Verso: PDM xiv. 1180-98 (cols. xxviii/1-xxx/11):
Johnson, in Betz. pp. 249 (PDM xiv. 1182-87, 1188-89); 250 (PDM xiv. 1190-93, 1194-95, 1196-98).
J. Dieleman, 'Priests, Tongues, and Rites' (Leiden, 2005). 92 (PDM xiv. 1184).
Cf. entry in www.trismegistos.org - DAHT.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2010/11 Oct-Mar, Leiden, National Museum Of Antiquities, Egyptian Magic
2015-2016 Oct 29-Feb 7, London, BM, G35, Egypt: Faith after the Pharaohs
2018 27 Mar-9 Sep, Los Angeles, Getty Centre, Egypt-Greece-Rome: Cultures in Contact
2022-2023 13 Oct-19 Feb, London, BM, Hieroglyphs: unlocking ancient Egypt
- Condition
- Papyrus Survey:
Condition Details:
Papyrus
Black ink
Checked for loan to Munich 2006
Mount Details:
Sandwich: glass
Binding: magic tape
Binding: copydex self adhesive carpet tape
Object Priority: A
Mount Priority: A
Overall Condition: A
Curatorial condition comment:
fair
- Acquisition date
- 1857
- Department
- Egypt and Sudan
- BM/Big number
- EA10070,2
- Registration number
- .10070.2
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: Anastasi 1072
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Miscellaneous number: Frame.2
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Miscellaneous number: P Leiden/London
