Parts of ancient books were recycled in a variety of different ways, but I don’t recall having seen anything quite like this before. It’s a portion of a parchment folium from a codex that contained some works of Demosthenes (P.Amh. 2 24, TM 59644). What we have here is the top of a column containing the beginning of the second Philippic with a title at the top: ⲕ^ⲧ ⲫⲓⲗⲓⲡⲡⲟⲩ ⲃ. It was cut from a folium of a two-column codex and then notched across the top edge and part of the left edge. It is a little strange, then, that it seems to be torn rather than cut at the bottom.

The book from which it was poached must have been a very nicely produced codex. The script is a Biblical Majuscule with an appealingly light touch. The script is typically assigned to the fourth century, although the fifth century also seems possible to me. But I’m most curious about the afterlife: What was the intended use of this little item? It seems pretty clear that it was deliberately cut from a folium. But why the notches? Was it a book mark? Some kind of decorative item? It’s a fascinating piece.