Category Archives: Find Stories

The Papyrus of Aristotle’s Constitution of the Athenians: Provenance Questions

Posted on January 1, 2019 by

I recently wanted to quickly refresh myself on what can be known about the provenance of the famous papyrus containing nearly the entire text of Aristotle’s Constitution of the Athenians (British Library Pap. 131, LDAB 391). As usual, this turned … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Archaeological context, British Library Aristotle, E. A. Wallis Budge, Find Stories, Frederic Kenyon | 7 Comments

National Geographic’s “Bible Hunters” Article Online

Posted on November 28, 2018 by

I mentioned in an earlier post that cover story of the December 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine features “Bible Hunters”–the search for early Christian and Jewish manuscripts. The full story is now online (along with some images that are … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Market, Find Stories | 1 Comment

God’s Library: Publication Day

Posted on August 21, 2018 by

So, it’s August 21. This is the official publication date for God’s Library (I’m not entirely sure what that means, because the book has been shipping from the publisher for a couple weeks now already). Thanks again to everyone involved … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Dealers and Collectors, Antiquities Market, Archaeological context, Book binding, Book covers, Codices, Find Stories, Manuscript Collections, Palaeography, Radiocarbon analysis | 6 Comments

The Nag Hammadi Discovery Story

Posted on August 20, 2018 by

Over on his blog, Bart Ehrman is answering questions about the Gospel of Thomas. He has started out by re-telling a version of the traditional find story of the Nag Hammadi codices. This is a topic that I treat in … Continue reading →

Posted in Codices, Find Stories, Nag Hammadi | 3 Comments

A Marble Relief of a Priest of Cybele

Posted on July 5, 2018 by

It’s always a pleasant surprise to visit a familiar museum and find a “new” piece. It happened to me the other day at the Capitoline Museum. Earlier this year, there was an exhibition on Johann Joachim Winckelmann (actually, it was mainly … Continue reading →

Posted in Find Stories, Sculpture | 2 Comments

Excavating the Oxyrhynchus Philo Codex

Posted on May 14, 2018 by

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 | 7 Comments

A Working List of Funerary Sculpture Attributed to Oxyrhynchus

Posted on May 5, 2018 by

As I have been looking into a set of sculptures attributed Oxyrhynchus (in previous posts here and here), some patterns have emerged in terms of acquisition. It seems that the best thing to do is to make a list of … Continue reading →

Posted in Antiquities Market, Find Stories, Oxyrhynchus Sculpture, William Matthew Flinders Petrie | 2 Comments