An Aramaic Journal Page

Abstract

At the request of Richard A. Parker, who has reconstructed and dated a page of papyrus from several fragments of a series which Aim6-Giron had already suggested must somehow belong together as a journal of the Memphis arsenal,' I have prepared this reading of the reconstructed text (Pls. IV-V). These badly damaged fragments of text are somewhat unique in having their most legible readings in the date formulas which epigraphers from experience usually expect to find most difficult. Aside from the date lines, the text is in very poor condition. Portions are so mutilated that only isolated letters or even traces of letters are discernible, and gaping holes make it almost impossible to gain an intelligible context. Under such circumstances it is difficult to improve on the usual careful work of Aim6-Giron and almost impossible to glean more than he has from them. However, the demonstration that the pieces can be read when the fragments are put together as Parker has done it, by matching lines and by joining the legible date formulas, can be regarded as a contribution in advance of what Aim6-Giron has done. Then, too, my independent readings of the photographs of these fragments sometimes differ from those already proposed. Often, it is true, these differences depend upon an alternative interpretation of very mutilated letters, but these readings might throw light on some of the more legible sections of text and, if sound, might affect Aramaic lexicography. TEXT2