P.SORB.INV. 2358 AND THE NEW STATISTICS
ON DEATH CERTIFICATES1
P.Sorb.inv. 2358 13.7 x 11.5 cm. Arsinoiton polis
(collection R. Weill, serie II No. 117) February 24, A.D. 110
Left margin 1 cm., lower 2 cm. The light brown papyrus is
broken off at the top and has suffered damage along the three vertical
(and three horizontal?) lines of folding. The hand is a small, practiced
cursive offering few difficulties in transcription.
With the assistance of Posis her brother as guardian, Apollonarion,
daughter of Dioskoros, son of Posidonios, submits to Ammonios,
royal secretary of the Heraklides division of the Arsinoite nome, the
death certificate of her husband Mysthas, son of Mysthas and Taese.
This document is noteworthy only for its inclusion of the signalements of the declarants and other family members before the body of
the declaration; in other documents the signalements, when they
appear, are" always inserted after the declaration of death (e.g. BGU
17; P.Phil. 6; P.Petaus 3). Since this declaration is written entirely by
one hand, it is apparent that it is a copy, and that the copyist had
before him a version of the declaration onto which someone had
written in the signalements of the family concerned. The only death
certificates which could be cited as remote parallels are BGU 254 and
2230 I and II; however, the notations prefacing them all concern the
deceased and not the declarant.
1 I am deeply indebted to J. Scherer of the Sorbonne for providing me with an
excellent photograph of this papyrus and for so generously allowing me to publish it here.
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