Letter

Description

Title: Letter
Published / Created: Roman CE 218-222
Abstract: Military; breaches of discipline and desertions among soldiery of the border garrison; official letters, possibly from provincial governor
Description: Latin, Greek
Provenance: Acquired by gift and purchase, 1889-2005. Acquisition information is recorded in each individual description and on the Library’s Web site, here: https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/research-teaching/doing-research-beinecke/introduction-yale-papyrus-collection/guide-yale-papyrus#Acquisition, The Yale Papyrus Collection was held by the Yale University Library from 1899 to 1930, when it was moved to the Department of Classics. The collection was transferred from the Department of Classics to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library gradually between 1964 and 1967. A group of items including wax tablets and mummy tags (P.CtYBR inv.4971-4985) was transferred from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History to the Beinecke Library in 1996., The archaeological site at Dura-Europos, Syria, was excavated by Franz Cumont of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, France, from 1922-1924 and 1926-1927. In 1928, Yale University joined the project through the efforts of Michael I. Rostovtzeff, Sterling Professor of Ancient History and Classical Archaeology, and continued through the conclusion of the work in 1937. The collaborative Dura-Europos project was overseen initially by French field director Maurice Pillet (1928–1931), then by Clark Hopkins of Yale (1932–1935), and finally by Frank E. Brown, also of Yale (1936–1937). The Yale University Art Gallery acquired a large collection of artifacts from the site, while the papyri and parchments were received originally by Yale’s Department of Classics, and were transferred to the Beinecke Library in the 1960s. A small number of parchments from Dura-Europos that were excavated in 1922-1923 are held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Inv. DPg 1-9), but the bulk of the documents are at Yale. The parchments and papyri arrived at Yale throughout the period of excavation. Specific information for some of the items about the date and location of excavation within the site at Dura-Europos and other information about provenance can be found in the published edition of the texts: C. Bradford Welles, Robert O. Fink and J. Frank Gilliam, The excavations at Dura-Europos : final report ; 5, pt. 1. The Parchments and papyri, with an account of the three Iranian fragments by W. B. Henning (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959).
Extent of Digitization: This object has been completely digitized.
Language: Latin
Greek, Ancient (to 1453)