Category Archives: Antiquities Dealers and Collectors

So-called “First Century Mark.” Wow. (with a coda on Oxyrhynchus inventory numbers)

Quite a bit has gone down since Elijah Hixson broke the news yesterday that a newly published Oxyrhynchus papyrus (P.Oxy. 83.5345) is the much awaited “first century Mark” fragment that has been rumored to exist since 2012.

Posted in Antiquities Market, Dirk Obbink, First Century Mark, Oxyrhynchus Papyri | 13 Comments

Excavating the Oxyrhynchus Philo Codex

In my previous post, I mentioned that the Oxyrhynchus Philo codex (LDAB 3540) was published in a number of different outlets. There are also some tantalizing hints about the archaeological context of the fragments. Here is the data on the … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Market, Codices, Find Stories, Maurice Nahman, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Oxyrhynchus Philo | 8 Comments

The Yale Genesis

Among the ancient Greek manuscripts in the Beinecke Library at Yale University is a fragment of a leaf of a papyrus codex containing the book of Genesis. It constitutes another interesting case of palaeographic analysis, both for the variety of … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Market, Codices, Colin H. Roberts, Eric Turner, Maurice Nahman, Palaeography, Yale Papyri | 6 Comments

Anton Fackelmann and Cartonnage

Since I began this blog midway through 2017 with a post about Anton Fackelmann and some of the papyri he allegedly removed from mummy cartonnage, I thought I might close out the old year and open up the new with … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Market, Anton Fackelmann, Book covers, Carl Schmidt, Fakes and Forgeries, First Century Mark, Mummy cartonnage | 1 Comment

Ancient Book Covers and “Cartonnage”

As a follow-up to my last post on the development of the use of the French term “cartonnage”: It looks like it was the late 1950s when the term “cartonnage” began to be applied to the material sometimes used in … Continue reading

Posted in Anton Fackelmann, Book covers, Codices, Mummy cartonnage, Nag Hammadi, Schøyen Collection, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Anton Fackelmann: Conservator and Seller of Antiquities

In researching the supposed first-century papyrus of Mark’s gospel associated with Anton Fackelmann, I found that there wasn’t a lot of information about Fackelmann available either online or elsewhere. So, I thought I would take a moment to write up … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Market, Anton Fackelmann, Cologne Mani Codex, Derveni Papyrus, First Century Mark, Herculaneum Papyri, Mummy cartonnage | 2 Comments

The Harris Homers and the Crocodile Pit of Maabdeh

In the 2017 issue of the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists, I have an article that ended up being a sort trip down the rabbit hole. The title gives you an idea of the curious combination of topics: … Continue reading

Posted in Anthony Charles Harris, Antiquities Market, British Museum, Find Stories, Harris Homer, Mummies, Selima Harris | 7 Comments

Some Answers on Fackelmann’s “First-Century Mark” Papyrus

When I wrote my earlier post on a papyrus allegedly containing a draft of Mark’s gospel, I also did a bit of searching to see if anything new had come up with regard to Fackelmann’s alleged Mark papyrus. The only … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Market, Anton Fackelmann, Fakes and Forgeries, First Century Mark, José O'Callaghan, Mummy cartonnage, Schøyen Collection | 7 Comments

Further Details on the Robinson Papyri

[Update 22 November 2023: The data here is now superseded by the information gathered in Daniel B. Sharp, “The Provenance of the Robinson and Mississippi Papyri,” Archiv für Papyrusforschung 69 (2023) 162-192.] Once I got to organizing my thoughts about … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Market, Dirk Obbink, Duke Papyri, Green Collection, Green Collection Sappho, Mummy cartonnage, P.Sapph. Obbink, Robinson Papyri | 5 Comments

A First-Century Papyrus of Mark (Probably Not the One You Think)

[[With thanks to Sonja Anderson, Malcolm Choat, Ann Hanson, and Hugo Lundhaug for help in gathering sources and checking facts.]] One of the great things about researching ancient Christian manuscripts at Macquarie University in Sydney was the collection of bibliographic … Continue reading

Posted in Antiquities Market, Anton Fackelmann, Fakes and Forgeries, First Century Mark, Mummy cartonnage, Schøyen Collection | 8 Comments