Coverage

Because of its organic growth and evolving focus since 2005, Trismegistos Texts has a very different coverage according to region, period and genre. The following tables provide estimations of the current coverage for published documents.

Egypt and the Nile Valley (800 BC - AD 800)

Language / Script / Genre Coverage of Trismegistos Texts (estimated)
Greek papyrology almost 100%
Greek epigraphy ca. 85% ?
Latin papyrology almost 100%
Latin epigraphy almost 100% ?
Demotic papyrology and epigraphy almost 100%
Hieroglyphic and hieratic papyrology ca. 95% ?
Hieroglyphic and hieratic epigraphy perhaps 40% ? (excluding 'temple texts')
Coptic papyrology almost 100%
Coptic epigraphy perhaps 40% ?
Aramaic papyrology and epigraphy ca. 95% ?
Meroitic epigraphy ca. 95% ?
Old Nubian papyrology and epigraphy perhaps 90% ?
Arabic papyrology perhaps 90% ?

Egypt and the Nile Valley (before 800 BC)

Language / Script / Genre Coverage of Trismegistos Texts (estimated)
Hieroglyphic and hieratic papyrology only Books of the Dead and documentary material from Deir el-Medina (both almost 100%)
Hieroglyphic and hieratic epigraphy almost completely lacking

Egypt and the Nile Valley (after AD 800)

Language / Script / Genre Coverage of Trismegistos Texts (estimated)
Greek papyrology and epigraphy ca. 90% ?
Old Nubian papyrology and epigraphy ca. 50% ?
Coptic papyrology only documentary material (almost 100%)
Coptic epigraphy limited coverage, only Koptisches Sammelbuch material
Arabic papyrology only documents, ca. 10% ?
Arabic epigraphy completely lacking
Hebrew material (e.g. Geniza) completely lacking

outside Egypt and the Nile Valley (BC 800 - AD 800)

Language / Script / Genre Coverage of Trismegistos Texts (estimated)
Greek and Latin 'papyrology' almost 100%
Greek epigraphy only few entries from the Prosopographia Ptolemaica and most of the material from Macedonia
Latin epigraphy almost 100% of Macedonia (EDH), Britannia (EDH complemented with RIB and CISP), Regio X: Venetia et Histria (EDR and EDH), with the rest of Europe coming soon

For unpublished documents, the coverage is very problematic to estimate. Our main source of information are the collection-based tools.

The Google charts below compare the current number of Trismegistos texts written or found in the various European and North African countries, with the figure for Egypt (123,208).