1. Papyrus 497
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Papyrus 497
- Title:
- Wills (P.Petr.2 I 17, P.Petr. III 13(a-b), P.Lond. III 497 descr., TM 47311; P.Petr.2 I 1, P.Petr. I 21, P.Petr. III 1, P.Lond. III 497 descr., TM 47329)
- Scope & Content:
- Register of wills from mummy cartonnage. Left papyrus (A) (P.Petr.2 I 17, P.Petr. III 13(a-b), P.Lond. III 497 descr., TM 47311): End of the will of a testator whose name is lost, with list of witnesses, and beginning of the will of Menander of Amphipolis, who makes provisions for his wife Agat...
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Languages:
- Greek, Ancient
- Date Range:
- 238 BC-235 BC
- Extent:
-
Two fragments from two papyrus sheets of the same register, reused as mummy cartonnage, with plaster residue on the back; mounted in the same glass frame.
Left papyrus (A): Papyrus fragment, broken off at the bottom and sides, and written on one side along the fibres. The back bears no writing. The front contains portions of 19 lines, with traces of another line at the bottom; they all lack beginnings and ends. Part of the upper margin survives. Three additional fragments, all from Trinity College, Dublin (inv. nos. F29 and E16), contain further portions of this column and parts of 8 lines of another column preceding this one.
Right papyrus (B): Broken off at the bottom and damaged by holes, especially at the top; bearing portions of two columns, written along the fibres on the front; of the first column, the ends of 19 lines survive; of the second column, 24 lines remain. Two sheet-joins run along the height of the papyrus, the first at c. 20 mm from the end of column 1 and the other at c. 5 mm from the right edge. With plaster and traces of ink on the back.
Three additional fragments containing furhter portions of these two columns and the beginning of a third column are in Trinity College, Dublin, and at Halle University. The fragment inventoried as Trinity College Dublin FF 73 joins the BL papyrus at the bottom on the left and preserves 11 additional lines of column 1 and traces of 4 other lines from column 2. The fragment of Halle University (inv. no. 55) joins the BL fragment to the right and contains the ends of 9 lines from column 2 and the beginnings of 16 lines from column 3. The other fragment in Trinity College (FF1) joins the Halle papyrus at the bottom and the BL papyrus at the bottom right, and preserves the ends of 8 lines of column 2 and portions of 15 lines of column 3.
