Vita e Pensiero

This article includes: 1. The re-edition of BGU III (1903) 735 (Arsinoites, 235p), fragment of a register of constrained buildings. 2.The edition of the short text on the recto of P.Laur. III 103, letter of the Heronino’s archive. 3.The reedition of P.Vindob.Bosw. 17 recto (Arsinoites, IIp), fragment of a register on the land taxation. 4. Few corrections to SB XXVI 16675 already thoroughly revised by D. Hagedorn in “Ch. Ég.” 88 (2013), pp. 115-124.

This contribution attempts to reconstruct the historical context in which the Alexandrian oration contained in PSI X 1160 took place. It tackles the evidence of an Augustan suppression of the Alexandrian (and eventually of other) city councils in Egypt and examines the relationship between PSI X 1160 and the Letter of Claudius to the Alexandrians, P.Lond. VI 1912...

In Roman and Byzantine Egypt horses are mentioned in documents of various types, from sales to letters. They were mostly used for the cavalry, horse racing and various “public” functions. They are remembered in private letters and in proskynemata almost as family members. In case of need, horses were entrusted to the care of veterinary specialists (hippoiatroi).

Edition of an unpublished papyrus from Antinoupolis which contains a few lines from the Coptic version of the Passio s. Pantaleonis. Comparison with other Coptic and Greek premataphrastic versions of the text.

The author, starting from a deep analysis of the definitions and meanings given by previous Scholars of the statue of Osiris Chronocrator wrapped in the coils of a snake now preserved in Palazzo Altemps in Rome, will lead the reader to a new interpretation of the sculpture in its entirety through the study of ancient texts, iconographies, similar statues and archaeological contexts from ancient Egypt to the Greco-Roman period, including the examination of some divinities such as Aion, Dionysus and Sabazius.

Some photographs by Giovanni Fasani, an Italian photographer who worked in Egypt between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, offer the opportunity to reconsider the Great Sphinx of Giza and its identification, starting from the New Kingdom, with Hor-em-akhet/Harmachis...

In this contribution, the Egyptian birdname “abw“ is discussed again. The ornithological species of the bird can be identified with the dove. The evidence for this word amounts to five examples. The secondary form “abaab“ is given particular weight. The ages of the examples range from the Middle Kingdom to the Ptolemaic period.

In this contribution, the ship motiv in the Egyptian pAn IV, 10, 4 is tackled again. The phenomenon still seems to await a meaningful explanation. The interpretation given here is based on a connection with the cruciform of mast and yard.