Long-lost papyri returned to Cal

BERKELEY -- A thousand pieces of ancient Egyptian papyri holding the potential for untold scholarly discovery have been returned to their rightful place at UC Berkeley, a cause for momentous celebration even though half a century had passed before anyone even realized they were missing.

The fragile, centuries-old documents were warmly welcomed to the holdings of the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri at the university's Bancroft Library during a symbolic ceremony on Tuesday.

"The correct monetary value of these papyri cannot be calculated, but their scholarly value is immense," said Donald Mastronarde, director of the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri.

The story of the heretofore lost papyri dates back to more than 100 years ago, when university benefactor Phoebe Apperson Hearst financed an excavation of the Egyptian city of Tebtunis in the winter of 1899-1900. Under the original deal, excavators Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt were to temporarily take the papyri to Oxford University in England for study before forwarding them to University of California, Berkeley.

When some 30,000 Tebtunis papyri made their way to Berkeley in batches in the 1930s and 1950s, officials figured they had received them all. But as researchers and students began looking at the papyri about four years ago, they noticed gaps in cataloging numbers that corresponded to chronological dates of discovery. Coincidentally, a University of Toronto scholar also published a paper noting that he found similar catalog numbers on papyri he had studied at Oxford, leading researchers to conclude Oxford still held chunks of papyri that were presumably overlooked when they returned the earlier pieces.

Oxford has thousands upon thousands of papyrus fragments, researchers said, so it's not unusual that some items were overlooked.

In August, Oxford shipped -- via FedEx, of all things -- three boxes containing about 350 papyri each to UC Berkeley. The pieces -- some dating back to the first century -- were packed into plain cardboard boxes and wrapped in back issues of the Oxford University Gazette.

Contained in the papyri are fragments from the works of Euripides and Homer; the papers of a prophetess of the Tebtunis crocodile god; a medical handbook; and a priestly encyclopedia in hieroglyphics.

Other papyri record the more mundane clues of life in ancient Egypt. A review of grainy microfilm images of some of the papyri made at Oxford revealed the disquieting details of the sale of a female slave, said Todd Hickey, a UC Berkeley assistant professor and assistant research papyrologist who helped spearhead the return of the papyri.

He also found documents that will help him in his own research tracing the lives of a family of priests dating back eight generations.

More important, the papyri will help scholars and researchers unearth new information about the social structure and culture of the ancients, Hickey said.

Researchers now begin the delicate task of cataloging the papyri, a process that could take a year or more. Eventually, digitized images of the fragments will be available on the Internet at http:// tebtunis.berkeley.edu so researchers throughout the world -- and even a curious public -- can view them, Hickey said.

"The real scholarly work has only just begun," said Anthony Bliss, curator of rare books and manuscripts at the Bancroft Library.

Contact Michelle Maitre at mmaitre@angnewspapers.com.

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