Stanford’s papyri collection being analyzed
About 70 texts in Stanford’s collection of several hundred papyri kept in storage since the 1920s were brought to the university’s conservation lab in April. They were soaked in water to wash away the remains of an adhesive material applied to them for use as cartonnage—material molded into masks and panels to cover the mummified bodies of humans and animals. The texts were then mounted in thin glass frames, allowing for easy handling and close inspection. The ink, essentially a waterproof mixture of soot and resin, is faded but mostly legible.
The specimens from the Ptolemaic Era are far from complete documents. Peeled from mummies by archaeologists and grave robbers, the once well-kept records now come with gaping holes. Many are fragments of larger pieces and offer a few hints about a transaction or contract. But there’s not always enough to tell a complete story.
John Sutherland, a Stanford graduate, is one of 18 students from 15 universities around the world working this month at Stanford to interpret some of the university’s papyri and publish their findings. The group makes up the participants in this year’s Papyrological Institute, an annual summer gathering of students and experts sponsored by the American Society of Papyrologists.
Working with modern technology to make sense of the ancient texts, the students use laptops to tap into databases of papyrological information maintained by Duke and Columbia universities. After the students enter individual words or phrases gleaned from the texts in front of them, the databases help determine whether the pieces in Stanford’s collection are related to any previously published texts.
The matching system also can help put the Stanford pieces in context, revealing whether a text is a marriage certificate, land record or some other common document.
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