History and find spot:
When P. BM EA 10242 was purchased by the British Museum in 1837, its provenance was not clear. It soon turned out that the papyrus belonged to a bundle of six demotic letters in the property of the British Museum, all referring to a general Herianoupis. These letters came into the possession of the British Museum in different ways:
In 1835 the British Museum acquired three papyri at the auction of Henry Salt's collection at Sotherby's:
- P. BM EA 10406 (Salt 274; TM 43930; BC 160 Oct 2 - 159 Oct 1);
- P. BM EA 10405 (Salt 823; TM 43929; BC 159 Jan 1);
- P. BM EA 10231 (Salt 697; TM 43898; BC 159 Feb 27).
In 1837 the British Museum purchased one letter from the traditional London auction house Phillips, Son & Neale (together with P. BM EA 10225; Phillips 39; TM 50057; see digital edition in the corpus of the DPDP). But originally this papyrus in all probability also came from the auction of Henry Salt's collection at Sotherby's 1835 and then passed into the auction house Phillips, Son & Neale:
- P. BM EA 10242 (Phillips 40; TM 43930; BC 159 Jan 20).
Two letters are from the collection of Robert Curzon, 14^th Baron Zouche (1810-1873), and were given to the British Museum by Curzon's daughter Darea in 1917. Since Robert Curzon must have acquired these letters before 1849, it seems certain that these papyri were also originally acquired by Curzon at the above-mentioned auction of Sotherby's in 1835:
- P. BM EA 10786 (TM 46669; BC 160 Oct 11);
- P. BM EA 10785 (TM 46668; BC 159 Feb 12).
The digital editions of the letters mentioned above are incorporated in the corpus of the DPDP website.
All these six letters were written in the 22^nd regnal year of Ptolemy VI Philometor (160/159 BC). From their contents (especially P. BM EA 10785), it is clear that the general Herianoupis was ordered by Ptolemy VI from Memphis to the royal court at Alexandria in this year. Four of these letters were addressed to the scribe of Herianoupis (P. BM EA 10231, P. BM EA 10242, P. BM EA 10405, and P. BM EA 10406), who continued to manage the general's affairs at Memphis, and could be definitely attributed to the archive of Herianoupis localised in the Sacred Animal Necropolis, North Saqqara (Anubeion). The two letters P. BM EA 10785 and P. BM EA 10786 do not show an address. The recipient of P. BM EA 10785 is the prophet of Min. It is not completely certain, but the content of these last two letters makes it very plausible that they can also be allocated to the archive of Herianoupis (cf. in detail: Muhs, in: Honi Soit Qui Mal Y PenseMuhs, B., 'Two Demotic Letters from the Archive of Herianoupis, from the Curzon Collection now in the British Museum', in: Knuf, H. / Leitz, Ch. / Recklinghausen, D. von (Hgg.), Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense. Studien zum pharaonischen, griechisch-römischen und spätantiken Ägypten zu Ehren von Heinz-Josef Thissen (Orientalia Lovniensia Analecta 194; Leuven, 1990), 397-404, Taf. 77-78., 397-400; Martin / Smith, in: Honi Soit Qui Mal Y PenseMartin, C. / Smith, H. S., 'Demotic Letters from the Sacred Animal Necropolis, North Saqqara, from the Curzon Collection now in the British Museum', in: Knuf, H. / Leitz, Ch. / Recklinghausen, D. von (Hgg.), Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense. Studien zum pharaonischen, griechisch-römischen und spätantiken Ägypten zu Ehren von Heinz-Josef Thissen (Orientalia Lovniensia Analecta 194; Leuven, 1990), 85-97, Taf. 29-33).
The writers of the letters P. BM EA 10231, P. BM EA 10242 and P. BM EA 10406 came either directly from Memphis or from the immediate vicinity. The letters P. BM EA 10405, P. BM EA 10785 and P. BM EA 10786 show in their greeting formula the passage: "... to make blessings before Horus-Re, the Lord of Sachebou, (and) Geb, the prince of the gods...". It can therefore be almost certainly presumed that the writers of these three letters came from Sachebou. For the localisation of Sachebou in the 2^nd Upper Egyptian Gau Letopolites see in detail the introduction to the texts of the P. BM EA 10405, P. BM EA 10785 and P. BM EA 10786.
The content of the letters from the Archive of general Herianoupis excludes a connection with a temple administration or a state agricultural administration. The letters address concerns that are on a legal level (release of a prisoner, P. BM EA 10242; disputes over wages for field work, P. BM EA 10405; clarification of a matter for which the sender of the letter does not wish to travel to Alexandria, P. BM EA 10785; confirmation of a maintenance payment, P. BM EA 10786; accusation of corruption, P. BM EA 10231; complaint about various workers and their accounts, P. BM EA 10406). Since general Herianoupis was written to concerning the legal clarification of these disputes, he must have held a judicial function in a Memphite local court. It cannot be clarified whether the general's judicial authority also included the area of Sachebou, or whether the cases described in the letters from Sachebou were disputes that had occurred in the legal district of Memphis and consequently also had to be judged by a Memphite court, which I would rather assume. In any case, these letters allow us to draw conclusions about the position and the great scope of the administrative powers of general Herianoupis.
Materiality:
The papyrus sheet has the typical vertical rectangular letter layout (transversa charta) and is in a good state of preservation. All margins are intact. The maximum height of the papyrus is approx. 30.4 cm, its maximum width 9.8 cm (BM: 33 cm / 12.30 with frame).
Textlayout:
The recto begins with the opening formula, which names the writer of the letter. The actual text of the letter follows at a distance of one line, beginning with the polite greeting (for the layout: Depauw, Demotic LetterDepauw, M., The Demotic letter. A study of epistolographic scribal traditions against their intra- and intercultural background (Demotische Studien 14; Sommerhausen, 2006)., 155-156). On the verso the recipient's address is written about 20 cm from the upper edge of the papyrus.
Text summary and date:
The letter (P. BM EA 10242 BC 159 Jan 20; year 22 Ptolemy VI Philometor, not named) of Harendotes, son of Horos, refers to a request concerning the conditions for the release of his friend Petechonsis. It is addressed to the scribe of General Herianupis, whose archive, as described above, is located in the Sacred Animal Necropolis, North Saqqara. In the letter, Harendotes emphasizes that he has already written to the General several times in this regard, but that he has not yet received any new information for the release of Petechonsis. It is interesting to note that Harendotes not only mentions that he himself would come to "North" to fulfill the conditions for the release of his acquaintance, but that he has also already sent a messenger to the General to the "North" to receive further information in this regard. Furthermore, Harendotes writes in the courteous opening of his letter that he had ask every person coming to "the South" about the wellbeing of General Herianoupis. Through the above mentioned letters from the Curzon Collection (P. BM EA 10786, TM 46669; BC 160 Oct 13?; P. BM EA 10785, TM 46668; BC 159 Feb 10?), which also originate from the archives of Herianoupis, it is obvious that the general was recalled to Alexandria in the years in 160 BC and 159 BC and was not in Memphis at that time. It can therefore be concluded that Petechonsis was not in prison in Memphis but in Alexandria.
It is paleographically uncertain whether Harendotes (TM Pers 57233), son of Horos (TM Pers 57851) also wrote the address, so the address was incorporated as a separate inscription (scribe unknown).