A Coptic Ostracon Mentioning the Village of Trekatan (O
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Journal of Coptic Studies 12 (2010) 81–85 doi: 10.2143/JCS.12.0.2062432 A COPTIC OSTRACON MENTIONING THE VILLAGE OF TREKATAN (O. ALEXANDRIA 28373) BY MAGDALENA KUHN AND JACQUES VAN DER VLIET The ostracon published below is part of a collection of 66 Coptic and Greek ostraca kept in the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria and of unknown provenance. A catalogue of the lot, prepared by Magdalena Kuhn with the assistance of Ahmed Abd el-Fattah, is forthcoming in the series Alexandrina, published by the Institut français d’archéologie orien- tale in Cairo. This catalogue does not provide editions of the mostly very badly damaged texts and merely intends to draw the scholarly attention to the collection as a whole1. Below, the most complete Coptic ostracon of the lot is given its first full publication2. We thank Mr. Ahmed Abd el-Fattah, former director of the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, and Dr. Mervat Seif el-Din, its present director, for their permission to study and publish the collection, as well as the late curator Samia el-Faham and Jean-Yves Empereur, director of the Centre d’études alexandrines, with his team (Cécile Harlaut, pottery analysis, and André Pellé, photos) for their kind assistance. The ostracon is kept in the store-rooms of the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, where it bears register no. 28373 (21191 B). It consists of an irregular piece of brown pottery (Nile clay) with a thin beige layer on the recto, measuring 14.5 ≈ 13.8 ≈ 0.9-1.3 cm. The recto (outside) has six rather strong horizontal ribs at intervals of about 2.5-3 cm. The sherd was probably part of an amphora. The text is complete and undamaged, apart from minor surface wear affecting the legibility of the first and last lines in particular. It consists of 13 lines of Coptic, written in regular and practiced, slightly sloping uncials on the recto; the verso is blank. The height of the letters varies from about 6 to 10 mm. The t tends to have a strongly emphasized dropping 1 For further information about the collection we refer to Kuhn, “Catalogue”. 2 A single Greek piece from the collection has been published earlier: Worp, “O. Alexandria inv. 19940”. The onomastic evidence of this tax receipt confirms the Theban origin of the lot (see below). 993795_JOCS_12_2010_05.indd3795_JOCS_12_2010_05.indd 8811 331/03/111/03/11 008:398:39 82 MAGDALENA KUHN AND JACQUES VAN DER VLIET left end; the three-stroke m is broad and low; the # is characterized by a closed upper loop and an angular lower curve ending in an almost straight horizontal line. The use of superlinear strokes and diereses, as far as preserved, seems regular. The language is Sahidic with some Theban peculiarities, which will be discussed in the commentary. (Pl. 1) Coptite nome saec. VII 1. + jorp men è- jine auw èaspa- he mpesènouve ntetn- 4. m^n^æTson emate ari ta- gapy n_ tetn_ tn_ noou n_ ga- maule n_ touvi peji n_ - souo e#raï etrekatan nan epe- 8. dimosion m_ mon txreia te etetn_ janR xreia n_ nou n#aIn tnnatnnoousou nytn_ éi- se #m_ péoeis taas m_ pame- 12. rit n_ son ïakwb presbute- ros #itn_ #Llo peielax(istos) 1. cross or chrismon before jorp only vaguely visible || 8. txreia te rather than txreiae te (t of te somewhat blundered); l. texreia || 9. n#aIn rather than n#oIn || 13. peielax/ + First (+ mén) I greet and kiss (âspáhomai) the sweet odor of your (plur.) brotherhood warmly. Be so kind (âgápj) and send (plur.) us the camels in order that they bring for us that measure of grain for the tax (djmósion) up to Trekatan. It is really necessary (xreía). When you (plur.) need (-xreía) whatever things, we will send them to you (plur.). Prosper in the Lord! [address] To my beloved brother Jacob, priest (presbúterov), from Hllo, this most humble (êláxistov). This brief but polite letter is addressed to a priest Jacob by a certain Hllo, who may have been a priest or monk himself. Hllo refers to Jacob as “your brotherhood” (l. 3-4) and as “my beloved brother” (l. 11-12), which suggests that both were monks, but he also uses the polite second 993795_JOCS_12_2010_05.indd3795_JOCS_12_2010_05.indd 8822 331/03/111/03/11 008:398:39 A COPTIC OSTRACON MENTIONING THE VILLAGE OF TREKATAN 83 person plural throughout the letter, showing that Jacob was superior in rank or status. The letter asks Jacob to send camels, perhaps those of the monastery or church to which Jacob but possibly also Hllo himself belonged, in order to transport for the “us” represented by Hllo a cer- tain amount of grain, destined for the payment of tax (djmósion), to Trekatan. Apparently, the payment is due by the “us” of the letter in Trekatan. It is primarily the mention of this village that lends the ostra- con its interest. Trekatan (Trakatan, Trikatan) is well attested in Greek and Coptic sources as a kÉmj of the Coptite nome3. It is mentioned several times in the archive of Bishop Pesynthios of Coptos, as well as in documents from Jeme and the Monastery of Epiphanius4. Our ostracon therefore provides a valuable clue to the provenance of the Alexandria lot, which is undoubt- edly to be sought in the wider Theban area5. The exact geographical position of Trekatan remains unknown, but its occurrence in the letter P. Pesynthios no. 3 (Louvre inv. R 99, as Trikatan) suggests its proximity to Shanhur6, while the origin of one of the witnesses in the Greek agree- ment SB XVIII, no. 13777, would situate it in the neighborhood of Qus7. Since both Qus and Shanhur are on the east bank, as is Coptos itself, it can be assumed with due caution that Trekatan was also located on the east bank of the Nile. The hand of the scribe of the Alexandria ostracon strongly resembles other Theban hands, for instance from the archive of Bishop Pesynthios (who died around 632), and can therefore be dated to the seventh century with some confidence. The scribe writes an overall correct Sahidic, though with a considerable number of peculiarities that are familiar from Theban documentary texts in general: the absolute instead of the demanded construct state of the verb tn_ noou (l. 5), n_ tou- for Sahidic n_ se- (l. 6), the full form of the article for the demonstrative pei- (in peji, l. 6), redundant doubling of prepositional n- (l. 9), and o–a 3 See Crum in P.Mon.Epiph., no. 468*, n. 4; Calderini, Diz. geogr., vol. V, 29 and 30, with Supplemento 2, 221; Timm, vol. 6, 2845-2846. 4 Jeme: SB XVIII, no. 13777; O.Medin.HabuCopt., no. 110, 1. 4; Epiphanius: P.Mon. Epiph., no. 468*. For the Pesynthios archive, see the forthcoming re-edition under the editorship of Florence Calament and Jacques van der Vliet. 5 See already Worp, “O. Alexandria inv. 19940”, 99-100. 6 For Christian Shanhur, which likewise occurs several times in the archive of Bishop Pesynthios, see Timm, vol. 5, 2292-2294, s.v. Sanhûr; cf. Quaegebeur/Traunecker, “Chen- hour 1839-1993”. 7 The second witness of this document, drawn up for a woman from Trekatan (Traka- tan), was a Flavius Eulogios, son of Eupraxios, from Diocletianoupolis / Qus (1. 32-33); cf. the ed. princeps by Parássoglou, “Three papyri”, 155-158. 993795_JOCS_12_2010_05.indd3795_JOCS_12_2010_05.indd 8833 331/03/111/03/11 008:398:39 84 MAGDALENA KUHN AND JACQUES VAN DER VLIET interchange (l. 9)8. Yet also some uncommon expressions can be noted. The group n_ nou n#aIn (l. 9), if read and interpreted correctly, would be an unparalleled indefinite pronominal construction (with n_ nou for n_ ou and #aIn for regular Sahidic #oïne)9. Furthermore, the final greeting éise #m_ péoeis (l. 10-11) is used here as a rare alternative for the habitual ouéai #m_ péoeis10. Another example is found in a letter from the archive of Bishop Pesynthios of Coptos, addressed to the bishop by a priest Paul (P. Pesynthios no. 18-ter; Louvre inv. R 101)11. The names of both the sender and the addressee of the ostracon, Hllo and Jacob, were ubiquitous in the Theban area and therefore cannot serve to identify the correspondents with any certainty12. Yet, since Jacob was apparently a clergyman of some authority whose sphere of activity included Trekatan, it is tempting to identify him with the Apa Jacob, likewise a person of some authority, to whom the lashanes of Trekatan (Trakatan) addressed a respectful request sometime in the episcopacy of an otherwise unknown Bishop Mena of Coptos13. This request may have to be dated in the eighth century, however14, and the Apa Jacob men- tioned there is not given the title of priest. Similar objections can be raised against the identification of our Jacob with a priest Jacob who was the superior (™goúmenov, proestÉv) of the monastery of Phel in the Coptite nome, most likely present-day Deir el-Gizaz, and a contemporary of Bishop Pesynthios of Coptos15. The Jacob of our document is called a priest but not a superior, even if it is likely that he was a monk. It would appear that all efforts at identifying either him or his correspondent are thwarted by the banality of their names. The ostracon is nonetheless a welcome addition to the growing number of documents that illustrate life in the late-antique and early-Islamic Coptite nome. 8 For the distinctive features of Theban Sahidic, see Crum in Winlock/Crum, The Monastery of Epiphanius, 232-254.