Author Description

This book provides a comprehensive edition of five well-preserved Greek papyri from an archive of undertakers (nekrotaphoi) from the late Ptolemaic Kynopolite nome, four of which unpublished. The texts contain a wealth of information on mummification practices and funerary taxation in this era, in particular concerning the use of the embalming products kedria (Egyptian sfy) and pharmakon (Egyptian phr.t), the traditional seventy-day funerary period, and a mummification procedure in which bodies are temporarily buried in the sand. All this and more is discussed in an extensive commentary combining Greek and Egyptian evidence.