The Neues Museum of the Berlin Museum Island – Highlights and recent discoveries from the Egyptian Papyrus Collection
Curator for Egyptian and Oriental Papyri Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz Prof. Dr. Verena Lepper
November 17, 2017 · 12:00 pm—1:20 pm ·
Program in the Ancient World, Committee for the Study of Late Antiquity and Visiting Fellow in the Humanities Council
Today, several thousand papyri and other manuscripts from Elephantine Island are spread throughout more than 60 institutions and museums in 24 different countries worldwide. Their texts are written in various languages and scripts, including hieroglyphs, hieratic, demotic, Aramaic, Greek, Coptic and Arabic. 80% of these manuscripts are yet to be published and investigated. The important island in terms of military strategy and trade, Elephantine is located in the Nile on Egypt’s southern border. No other settlement in Egypt has been so well documented over such a long period of time through texts. Its inhabitants comprise a multi-ethnic, multicultural and multi-religious community, which has left behind large amounts of written material, which provides evidence of everyday life from the Old Kingdom right up to the era following the Arab conquest. This talk will highlight the recent discoveries from the Neues Museum of the Berlin Museum Island.
