by Johannes Ostermeier
Towards the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, efforts were made in large parts of Europe to acquire Greek papyri. At this time, the Royal Museums in Berlin were also endeavouring to locate Greek literary papyri and bring them to Germany as cultural assets, which led to the establishment of the Berlin Papyrus Commission and the creation of the Prussian Papyrus Company. However, after there were several interested parties in Greek papyri, the various locations in Leipzig, Giessen, Würzburg and Strasbourg joined forces with Berlin to form the so-called Papyrus Cartel.
Otto Rubensohn, a classical philologist and archaeologist born in 1867, was responsible for this project from 1 October 1901 and remained in charge until 31 March 1907. In this role, he undertook campaigns at various locations: After initial excavations in Fayum in 1901/02, the search for papyri eventually led Rubensohn to el-Ashmunein (Hermopolis Magna) via further excavations in Abusir el-Meleq, where he spent around one to one and a half months each year from 1903 to 1906. Here, despite competition from the Italian mission led by Evaristo Breccia, which was active at the same time, he made numerous finds: In addition to around 2,500 non-papyrological objects and Coptic, Hebrew and Aramaic papyri, he mainly found Greek papyri with literary as well as documentary content. This period also saw the discovery of a large part of the Taurino family archive (5th/6th century AD), comprising around 75 texts.
The last two campaigns took Rubensohn to the island of Elephantine in 1906/07, which had attracted the interest of various institutions due to finds and purchases of mainly Aramaic papyri from previous years. Among other things, Rubensohn was able to add a papyrus find to the private archive of the Jewish woman Mibtahiah (5th century BC), which represents an important source for early Jewish culture outside the Bible (http://www.egyptian-museum-berlin.com/f05.php?sprache=de). Posterity is informed about Otto Rubensohn’s excavations, in particular due to the fact that his estate was handed over to the Jewish Museum Berlin in 2006 (https://www.jmberlin.de/ausstellung-otto-rubensohn).
Bibliography:
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- J. Kuckertz, Auf der Jagd nach Papyri. Otto Rubensohn in Ägypten, in: A. Pomerance – B. Schmitz (eds): Heiligtümer, Papyri und geflügelte Göttinnen. Der Archäologe Otto Rubensohn, Hildesheimer Ägyptologische Beiträge 53 (Hildesheim 2015) 39–57
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