Kiadatlan dokumentáris papirusztöredékek elemzése : P.Prag. III 1095, 1092b és 1101 jelzetű töredékek

Rarely do students of classical philology have the opportunity that a few of my fellow students and I were fortunate enough to get within the confines of a special educational program at the János Bollók Workshop of the Eötvös Collegium. We could research the Wessely Collection of Prague and especially the not yet published P.Prag III documents. This papyrus collection of Prague, to which the documents we studied belong, were originally part of Karl Wessely’s private collection. The core of the collection is the Heroninos Archive, which mainly contains accountings and letters, and two of the papyrus fragments in question are lists which belong there. The marking of one of these two papyri is P.Prag. III 1101 recto, and that of the other is P.Prag. III 1092b recto. Based on the size of the papyri and the jointing on their sides, it may be presumed that they were originally part of a bigger document. For what exact purpose the list was made for we do not know, although most likely it is a payroll. As for the third fragment, it is possibly a fragment of a letter, at least that is what the dating at the end of this document suggests. Since the majority of the letter have been lost, we have no knowledge of the author, the addressee or even the most part of the content. The previously mentioned papyrus fragments in themselves are not very significant because they contain little information. Still, they help us to better understand the economic life of the ancient era. Through them we can apprehend how an estate worked, how obligations were administrated, or how information was communicated and shared between the people of the age. The fragments can also make clear and comprehensible details which otherwise would remain in the dark. Hopefully, one day they will help us see the whole picture