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Demotic and Abnormal Hieratic Texts
E.g. BGU 3 802; P. Dryton 5; SB 22 15416; I. Fayoum 1 98; ... Click here for a complete alphabetical list of abbreviations.
While we try to provide as many editions of the text as we can, the depth of Trismegistos' information varies quite a lot according to the genre of text and its language. For Greek and Latin inscriptions and papyri, we try to cover all editions used to identify the texts. For Demotic our coverage is also almost exhaustive, but for other languages we sometimes suffice with a link to a more specialized website.
If you have doubts about abbreviation or title, you can try to the surname of the editor in the editor search field. The name of the editor is known to TM in about 95% of all editions.
As a last resort, you can go through the (non-exhaustive!) TM Bibliography which in some cases has links to texts published in that reference.
The name of the editor of the text. We use surname followed by a comma and first name, but other combinations may also work.
The place where the text is (or has been) preserved. We normally use the English name of the city followed by a comma and the local name of the collection. You may also just use the placename and a number if you looking for a specific text, e.g. Paris 10594.
Click on an info button to the right of a search field for more information about its contents.
If you want to exclude texts according to criteria, please use 'NOT" (in capitals) before the search term, e.g. 'ostracon NOT pottery' to search for ostraca that are not written on pottery.
Use the LDAB search mask with more criteria if your interest is in literary texts.
Always write your searchterm in full, as if you were using Google.
The material on which the text is written (limestone, papyrus, wood, ...) or the shape of the object on which the texts is written (stele, ring, ostracon, ...). These two types of material can be combined in a single search, e.g. 'lead tablet'.
For an overview of materials in TM, visit TM Material.
The language in which a text was written. For Egyptian the names of the various scripts are used: hieroglyphic, hieratic, Demotic, Coptic. Dialects of Coptic are normally also specified.
You can also search for "bilingual" texts in general, or just search for a combination of two languages, e.g. "Demotic Greek".
The place where a text was found or written. You can use both countries, regions, and cities: 'Egypt', 'Oxyrhynchite nome', 'Dalmatia', 'Kalkriese'.
It is currently not possible to distinguish place of writing from find place in searches.
In principle any dated expression, but in the LDAB most texts are only dated by century. You can use '1st century BC', 'early third century AD', the former LDAB standard 'AD04 - AD05', or even 'Ptolemaic period'. When a more precise date is known, you can enter it as '100 - 110 AD'. Other possibilities include 'reign of Augustus', 'early Ptolemaic', 'VI AD' (for the sixth century), 'Dyn. 26', '55 - 10 BC', ...'
Sometimes more than one text occurs on a single object. According to our criteria, texts are part of the same document (and thus constitute a single entry in TM Texts) when they are intentionally related, i.e. when the scribe of a secondary text - whether or not the same person as the writer of the primary text - wanted this to be on the same object or writing surface because there was in his mind a connection with the contents of the primary text. For more details about our criteria to decide whether texts are part of the same record, click here.
If two texts occur on the same writing surface, but are not intentionally related, the object or writing surface has been reused as 'old paper', 'old stone' or whatever the material used. This can be done in many different ways: one is to erase the primary text and to inscribe it with a new one. In that case the original, effaced text is a 'palimpsest old', while the text that is written above it is a 'palimpsest new'. Another possibility is that the blank side of an object, e.g. the verso of a papyrus or the back of a marble plate, is reused. In that case the primary text is marked as 'blank side reused by', the secondary as 'reuse of blank side of'. Finally, blank space can be reused. Examples of this are described as 'blank space reused by' or 'reuse of blank space of'.
In Trismegistos, each text written on what was originally a separate object or writing surface constitutes an individual record. Sometimes, however, two or more documents (often papyri) were in a second stage joined for their users' convenience, often because their complementary contents. This type of connection is also recorded, as 'in the codex joined with' for manuscripts bound together, or as 'in the tomos synkollesimos joined with' for texts made into a roll (click here for more information).
The history of reuse can at times be very complicated (for some complex cases, click here). As a result if can be time-consuming to figure out the exact relation between various texts constituting a single document. In many cases therefore users will find the general 'other texts on the same object'. We would welcome your help in changing this into something more specific.
Finally, please note that reuse has not been the focus of Trismegistos Texts so far, and no doubt many examples are not recorded by us. Because of the expansion of TM and collaboration with partners, we also have not monitored closely whether new entries are conform with what we consider to be a single document to be recorded. Please use the information to explore and illustrate only!
The ancient collection of texts to which a papyrus or ostracon belongs, e.g. 'Zenon archive'.
A search for the type of text is probably for experimentation purposes at best. The user should not expect results to be even remotely exhaustive, as the terminology is not standardized, not even within a single language and genre. The situation is probably best for Greek papyrology and for Demotic, but even there much work remains to be done.