included only a small selection of the scientific papyri, those of the greatest length
(e.g., the commentary in P. B. 9782 ), or which are not represented by authorial entries.
Many papyri are not copies of “published” texts, but are notes made by practitioners
(e.g., the L ), or are carefully-produced works for a limited audience
(e.g., the horoscope by P), or had other contexts, not now clearly discernible (e.g.,
the alchemical P. H. or the astronomical P. P G 1 ). Such items,
described as “sub-literary” by papyrologists, bring us to the border of what constitutes a
“work” or a “contribution,” but are valuable as holographs, unique evidence of practice
and belief (e.g., P. M 17.758). We have excluded tables of data (numerous
though they are), whether astrological or pharmaceutical. We have also had to omit
items that are inadequately published, although some appear to be of great interest: e.g.,
P.Tebt. II.676 (Pack 2366: on surgical abortion?). Many texts are so fragmentary that we
can hardly explain them: see for example P.Ant. 3 (1967) #123 (Materia medica, similar to
D), 124 (on diet and fever), 126 (encyclopedia entry on tonsils, similar to
A A 8.51 [CMG 8.2, pp. 485–486]), 140 (magico-medical recipes employing
the blind mole rat, Spalax typhlus Nordmann), and 141 (lunar astrology similar to V
V 1.4–5).
H. Harraurer and P.J. Sijpesteijn, edd., Medizinische Rezepte und Verwandtes (1981); Marganne (1981);
W. Cavini et al., Studi su papiri greci di logica e medicina (1988); Andorlini Marcone (1993); Eadem, Trattato
di medicina su papiro (1995); A. Jones, Astronomical papyri from Oxyrhynchus (1999); I. Andorlini Marcone,
Greek Medical Papyri 1 (2001).
PTK and GLIM
Papyrus Aberdeen 11 (100 – 200 CE)
Proble ̄mata work, whose preserved fragment concerns pterugeion, as in the H
C, Prorrh. 2.20 (9.48 Littré) and C 7.7.4.
Pack #2342; Marganne (1994) 104–111.
PTK
Papyrus Akhmı ̄m (500 – 800 CE)
Found in six codex folios in the late 19th c. in the newly discovered necropolis of Akhmı ̄m
(ancient Pano ̄polis), which had also hosted a Christian cemetery. Its author (or copyist)
was Christian; Baillet palaeographically estimated its date. The first two folios present
20 tables giving multiples of nth-parts of unity (n between 2 and 20) and of two-thirds; the
last four folios exhibit 50 problems either using, or asking for, calculations with numbers
expressed as parts or sums of integers and parts, for which the tables are indeed useful.
The large variety of techniques displayed for this may indicate this was the main focus
of this booklet, although some of the problems are also presented within a ( pseudo-)
practical context.
J. Baillet, Le papyrus mathématique d’Akhmîm (1892); B. Vitrac, Histoire de Fractions, fractions d’histoire
(1992) 149–172.
Alain Bernard
PAPYRUS AKHMI ̄M