Papyrus Discovery
By Prof. Arthur Verhoogt

One of our majors in Classical Archaeology, Rob Stephan, recently made a wonderful discovery in the Papyrology Collection of the University of Michigan. By using actual excavation records of the University of Michigan excavations in Karanis, Egypt, he was able to identify a dozen papyri that belong to a well-studied archive, that of Claudius Tiberianus. This archive was the subject of an independent study under my supervision.

The excavation records, currently kept in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, showed that no fewer than twenty-five papyri were found in the same room in a house labeled B167 by the excavators. Only sixteen made it into the 1951 publication of Michigan papyri from Karanis (P.Mich. VIII). No mention was made of the other texts in the publication, and they were since forgotten until Rob unearthed some of them in the vault of the Papyrology Collection (a number of the texts have been returned to Cairo).

The new texts, combined with the known texts and the archaeological record, promise to offer many interesting vistas on the family to whom the archive and the house belonged, that of Claudius Tiberianus. This man, we know from the published portion of the archive, was a veteran of the Roman army who settled in Karanis in the second century of our era. The archive consists largely of correspondence addressed to him by a number of other individuals, in particular a Claudius Terentianus who identifies himself as Tiberianus' son.

So far, we have identified one of the new texts as a fragment of Thucydides, Book 2 (63f.), shedding new light on the cultural background of the family. Another document contains fragments of court proceedings in which arson seems to be the main topic. The storage of this document in the family's house suggests that the family was involved, although we do yet not know as perpetrator or as victim. Further study of the archive and the artifacts found in the same house that Rob is currently undertaking will certainly contribute to scholarly debates about the social status of veterans in Roman Egypt. The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology will host a small exhibit on artifacts and papyri from Karanis house B167 in the fall of 2004.

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