May 9, 1927
I have already reported generally on my Egyptian tour and the various
purchases made in the MISSING of it. Detailed examination of
the papyri shows that on the whole they are of better quality and greater
interest than I feared when examining them in Egypt. Among them were
some rolls and boxes of fragments which owing to their brittle condition
it was impossible to examine properly until they have been damped and
flattened, and these it was necessary to buy more or less on trust.
Most of them have proved disappointing, but speaking generally it may
be stated that the opportunity to inspect papyri before purchasing and
to select only those which seemed likely to possess some individual
value has made it possible to acquire the present collection both more
cheaply and with a smaller intermixture of rubbish than in previous
years.
For purposes of description I have divided the papyri into three lots. The
first consists of the Kondilios papyri, the residue of the collection
purchased in 1925 by Michigan, Columbia, and the British Museum jointly
and consisting largely of Zeno papyri. These were acquired merely to
complete that purchase and in the hope that some of the fragments belonged
to papyri previously bought. For this reason, and because it is undesirable
to disperse the Zeno archive more widely than has already been done,
it is not proposed to put these papyri into the general distribution,
and I have reported on them separately to Michigan and Columbia.
The second lot consists of (1) the papyri bought by me in Upper Egypt, (2)
a number of papyri bought by Dr. Askren at various times before my arrival
in Egypt or during my absence at Thebes, (3) the papyri bought by me
at Cairo of dealers other than Nahman, (4) several lots bought after
my departure by Dr. Askren, Prof. kelsey, and Prof. Westermann.
The third lot consists of the papyri bought by Prof. Westermann and myself
from Nahman. These were acquired in one lot but consist of very various
papyri purchased by Nahman at different times and of different vendors.
Some had arrived recently; others were selected by me from boxes of
fragments which had apparently been in stock for a long time.
The descriptions of the papyri included in lot II do not include a number of
Coptic, Arabic, and Demotic papyri, to the value of £E9, which
were handed over by me in Cairo to Prof. Kelsey for the University of
Michigan and paid for by him on the spot, the money being added to the
funds at my disposal for purchase. The Coptic, Arabic, and Demotic texts
inventoried below were paid for out of the general fund. I regret that,
owing to the necessity of hurriedly repacking all the papyri at the
last moment, the boxes in which they had been placed proving too large
for the case, these bought at Miniah appear to have been mixed with
those from Akhmim, so that I am unable to distinguish these purchases.
As usual, the literary fragments have been examined by Mr. Milne.
H. I. Bell
British Museum
