Table Of ContentAnibersitp of Michigan Studies
HUMANISTIC SERIES
VOLUME XLII
MICHIGAN PAPYRI, VOL. IV, Parr I
TAX ROLLS FROM KARANIS
PART I
Vor, XLII = Parr I
Vor. XLIII = Part II
MICHIGAN PAPYRI
P. Mich. I, Nos. 1-120 = Humanistic Series, Vol. XXIV: C, ©. Edgar,
Zenon Papyri in the University of Michigan Col-
lectton.
P. Mich. II, Nos. 121-128 = Humanistic Series, Vol. XXVIII: A. E. R. Boak,
Papyri from Tebtunis, Part 1.
P. Mich. III, Nos. 131-221 = Humanistic Series, Vol. XL: Papyrt in the Uni-
versity of Michigan Collection, Miscellaneous Pa-
pyri, edited by J. G. Winter.
P. Mich. IV, Nos. 223-225 = Humanistic Series, Vol. XLIL: Tax Rolls from
Karanis, Part I, edited by H. C. Youtie.
Nos. 129-130 have been published in Vol. XXII of the Humanistic Series
under the title of 4 Papyrus Codex of the Shepherd of Hermas, by Campbell
Bonner; No. 222 in Vol. XX XVIII of the Humanistic Series under the title of
A Third-Century Papyrus Codex of the Epistles of Paul, by H. A, Sanders.
MICHIGAN PAPYRI, VOL. IV
Part I
TAX ROLLS FROM KARANIS
IN TWO VOLUMES
PART I
TEXT
EDITED BY
HERBERT CHAYYIM YOUTIE
With the collaboration of
VERNE BRINSON SCHUMAN
AND
ORSAMUS MERRILL PEARL
ANN ARBOR
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS
1936
CoPYRIGHT, 1937,
By Tre University or Micuican
Set up and printed,
December, 1936
FRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE FLIMPFION FRESS * NORWOOD + MASS.
To
JOSEPH VITEAU
AND
PAUL COLLART
ἘΪ
PREFACE
The first of the three rolls here published was unearthed at Köm
Aushim (Karanis) by sebbakkin in the early part of 1924 and turned over
by the local inspector to the Department of Antiquities at Cairo. Through
this channel the roll arrived at the Egyptian Museum, where it has re-
mained under the accession number P. Cairo, Journal d@’enirée 57187. In
the fall of 1924, after the University of Michigan had received permission
to excavate at Karanis, Mr. C. C. Edgar, then connected with the Depart-
ment of Antiquities, suggested to Professor A. E. R. Boak that he damp
out this and other papyri which had come from Köm Aushim with the
view of undertaking their publication. In the course of the winter of
1924-25 Professor Boak spent such time as he could spare from the exca-
vation in damping out the papyri and in transcribing their texts. Of the
long tax roll he had prepared by the end of the season a preliminary tran-
script of columns 3-13 and 38-41 in addition to notes on the structure of
the roll and the arrangement of the text. After his return to this country
he was unable, because of the pressure of other work, to fulfil his hope of
making this material immediately available to scholars. In the spring of
1931, ın order to ensure its publication within as short a period as possible,
he very generously transferred to me the editorial rights which he had
acquired, along with his transcript and notes. In the meantime, through
the courtesy of the authorities of the Egyptian Museum and of Mr. E. E.
Peterson, Director of the University of Michigan Research Expedition to
Egypt, a complete set of photographs had been made available for use at
the University. From these photographs both the edition of the text
and the plates at the end of the volume have been made. I am indebted
to the kind offices of M. Octave Guéraud for the permission given by the
Egyptian Museum to include the Cairo roll in this volume.
Subsequently, Dr. E. M. Husselman, our curator of manuscripts, drew
my attention to the presence in our own collection of two similar rolls,
which had been acquired by the University in the years 1925 and 1926.
I soon determined that the three rolls together provided an unusually
complete account of the daily collection of money taxes at Karanis during
three consecutive years in the second half of the second century A.D.
The advisability of publishing them in a single volume was evident. The
length of the rolls made it necessary for me to enlist the aid of two students,
Mr. Verne B. Schuman and Mr. O. M. Pearl, whose contribution was
made in parttal fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of
yı
Vill PREFACE
philosophy. Without their assistance the publication would have been
delayed more years than 1 care to count. To each of them was assigned
the preparation of a transcript and indexes of one of the Michigan rolls.
Mr. Schuman spent more than a year in the arduous task of transcribing
and indexing No. 224, which has a total of over 6400 lines. Unfortunately,
his collaboration was lost to me in the fall of 1935, when he left to assume
the post of assistant professor of Latin at Indiana University. Thanks to
the award of an American Field Service Fellowship for Study in France by
the Institute of International Education, Mr. Pearl was enabled to com-
plete his transcription of No. 225 under the experienced eye and with the
constant advice of my teacher, Professor Paul Collart. I have myself
revised all their work and correlated the three texts.
In addition to the Cairo roll and the two Michigan rolls, this volume
contains a new edition of P. Iand. VII, 141. Acting on a hint from Pro-
fessor Collart and with the coöperation of Professor Karl Kalbfleisch and
Dr. Dieter Curschmann, Mr. Schuman and I were able to identify the Janda
papyrus as the missing column 108 of No. 224. We are indebted to Pro-
fessor Kalbfleisch for his permission to reédit the column in its proper place
in the longer Michigan roll.
In transferring the text to the printed page, I have attempted for the
sake of the reader to introduce a degree of rigidity into the obvious arrange-
ment followed by the scribes themselves. In a sense, I believe that with
typography I have surpassed their own more or less skilful efforts to
approach an ideal schematization. On the other hand, I have not resisted
the palaeographer’s natural desire to follow wherever the manuscript leads;
I have changed nothing. A comparison of the printed page with the
plates will show that I have introduced not difference, but interpretation.
Editorial correction, particularly the insertion or the deletion of letters
by means of the usual symbols, has been restricted to a minimum. The
spellings of the papyrus have been left untouched.
“One serious omission there is which I much regret, and for which, in
any country governed rationally, I should incur a heavy penalty. To make
the present work really useful, it ought to have a complete index of all
Greek words mentioned in it... .” Professor Chandler’s indictment of
his ever useful book on Greek Accentuation applies with equal or greater
force to an edition of tax lists which extend their bulk to over 13,450 lines.
The indexes, however, are in existence and will be published in Part II.
Practical necessity alone excluded them from Part I, which without them
has quite outgrown the limits of a handy volume. Part II is planned to
include the text of twenty additional fragments, an introduction, notes,
charts, and indexes. Meanwhile, any scholar may obtain reasonably brief
excerpts from the indexes by communicating with the editor.
PREFACE ix
I owe a special debt of gratitude to Professor Allan Chester Johnson,
who has guided the footsteps of so many young scholars of this country on
the road to successful achievement in papyrological research. A corre-
spondence with him extending over many months and several long con-
versations constantly threw new light on my problems and injected the
warmth of his spontaneous and inexhaustible interest into the tedious
routine of editing the transcription and the indexes of a text longer than
the Odyssey and almost as long as the ffad.
For the opportunity to devote a large share of my time to the comple-
tion of a lengthy task and to publish the result in the Michigan Humanistic
Series, I am deeply indebted to the Institute of Archaeological Research
of the University of Michigan. To my colleagues, Professors A. E. R.
Boak, Campbell Bonner, F. E. Robbins, H. A. Sanders, and J. G. Winter,
I am grateful for the privilege of sharing my difficulties with them and of
profiting by their counsels. Professor W. H. Worrell has given me always
without measure and without stint the benefit of his specialized knowledge
of the Coptic language and of the Egyptian people; he has been of inesti-
mable value in guiding my own inexpert attempts to interpret Egyptian
names. Professor S. L. Wallace has put at my disposal a list of references
pertaining to a number of the taxes mentioned in these rolls and has made
several valuable suggestions. In the task of converting my manuscript
into a book printed and bound I have had the tireless assistance of Dr. E. 5.
McCartney, Editor of Scholarly Publications of the University of Mich-
igan Press, of his assistant, Mrs. H. J. Straw, and of the staff of the
Plimpton Press. No words of praise are sufficient to repay these techni-
cal experts for the efficiency with which they lighten the burden of a
young author.
H.C. Y.
