E00209: Greek list of payments on a wooden lid from Kynopolis (Middle Egypt), mentioning a presbyter of *Menas (soldier and martyr buried at Abu Mena, S00073); datable to the 7th/8th c.

online resource

posted on 2014-11-18, 00:00 authored by Bryan

SB 16.12998:

A list of money payments in wine written on the back of a wooden lid, from Cynopolis, 7th/8th century, mentions in line 1 the recipient of such a payment:

πρ(εσβύτερος) ἄπα Μη(νᾶ)

'presbyter of Apa Mena'

Full text available under: http://papyri.info/ddbdp/sb;16;12998

Translation: Gesa Schenke

History

Evidence ID

E00209

Saint Name

Menas, soldier and martyr Abu Mena : S00073

Saint Name in Source

Μηνᾶς

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/Menas_soldier_and_martyr_buried_at_Abu_Mena/13729309

Type of Evidence

Documentary texts - Wood

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

600

Evidence not after

799

Activity not before

600

Activity not after

799

Place of Evidence - Region

Egypt and Cyrenaica

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Cynopolis

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Cynopolis Hermopolis ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛ Ashmunein Hermopolis

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - unspecified

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy

Source

Wooden lid of a box used as writing material for two different lists, one of them for payments in wine (lines 1–3), the other for money payments (lines 5–27). Date given on palaeographical grounds, object located at Baarn, Private collection Moen 615.

Discussion

Whether these payments in wine were made to a church or a monastery of Menas, via its presbyter, remains unclear. But the receipt for wine indicates an active cult for Menas at Cynopolis in the 7th/8th century.

Bibliography

Edition: Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Aegypten, XVI (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1985-1988). = SB Further reading: Sijpestijn, P.J., "Ein hölzerner Deckel in der Sammlung Moen," Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 49 (1982), 112–114. For a full range of the documentary evidence on *Menas: Papaconstantinou, A., Le culte des saints en Égypte des Byzantins aux Abbassides (Paris: CNRS, 2001), 146–154.

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Keywords

S00073 History

Licence

CC0

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