Sample Document - P OI 10551
What follows are samples of the materials which were compiled in preparation for writing the entries for the Chicago Demotic Dictionary. For each text published between 1955 and 1979 (and for a non-random selection of other texts), a running transliteration and translation was prepared. Each word in the text was “carded” and discussions of the word or references to secondary discussions were added to the back of the cards. From these cards and collected discussions the dictionary entries were written. To the extent possible, facsimiles included in the final manuscript consist of copies of the words taken from greyscale computer scans of the published photographs.
All word processing documents were composed on Macintosh computers using the Microsoft Word program. Several fonts were used to create the final dictionary pages. The Macintosh Helvetica font (plus three additional characters for transliteration of aleph, ayin, and reed leaf) and, for the dictionary pages themselves, a bitmap font called “Diacritics” created for the dictionary by Janet H. Johnson using the Fontastic program. The Coptic font was similarly created specifically for the dictionary. The hieroglyphs are from a postscript hieroglyphic font created by Cleo Huggins; the postscript Greek font is GreekTimes, created by Ecological Linguistics.
The scan of the document itself was prepared using the Ofoto program on Macintosh computers with an Apple scanner; any adjustments of contrast and brightness made to the scan were done using the Adobe Photoshop program. The scan displayed with this article are at the standard screen resolution of 72dpi; actual dictionary scans were done at 300dpi.
For further information, about The Chicago Demotic Dictionary or about the process of scanning such documents, contact Janet H. Johnson
Document Name and Number
P OI 10551
Date
Year 20, third month of Summer, (day) 7 of the Pharaohs Ptolemy (Vl) and Cleopatra( ll) = August 4, 161 B.C.
Provenience
Pathyris/Gebelein
(so Ritner, Gram. Dem. [1984] p. 171, based on people involved, titles held, and deities invoked)
Document Type
Property Transfer Document
Publication and Discussion
Ritner, Robert K. “A Property Transfer from the Erbstreit Archives,” Grammata Demotika, Festschnftk für Erich Lüddeckens zum 15. Juni 1983, ed. by Heinz-J. Thissen and Karl-Th. Zauzich (Wurzburg: Gisela Zauzich Verlag, 1984) pp. 171 -87, pls. 24-30
Vleeming, Sven. ‘3. The Situation of the Fields of Erbstreit in “Three Demotic Notes,” Enchoria 15 (1987) 210-11
General Discussion of Document Type (incomplete)
Related Documents (incomplete)
Gradenwitz, O., F. Preisigke, & W. Spiegelberg, Ein Erbstreit aus dem ptolemäischen Ägypten, griechische und demotische Papyri der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft zu Strassburg (Strassburg: K. J. Trübner, 1912)
For recent discussions of this archive, some including the Ol papyrus, see Lewis, Naphthali. “A Greek Stationed among Egyptians: Cavalry Officer Dryton and his Family,” chapter 6 in Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986)
Pomeroy, Sarah B. ‘Apollonia (also called Senmonthis), wife of Dryton: Woman of Two Cultures,’ pp. 103-24 in “Some Married Women in the Papyri,” chapter 3 of Women in Hellenistic Egypt from Alexander to Cleopatra (New York: Schocken Books, 1984)
