The Archive of Ammon Scholasticus of Panopolis

On an extended visit to Achmim in 1968 to study the Coptic Church and its liturgy, our Duke University colleague Professor O.S. Wintermute became acquainted with a local merchant, who eventually showed him some papyri that he said he had unearthed in his garden. Those he would part with Wintermute acquired and on his return donated to the Duke University Li­ brary, sixteen fragments altogether of which nine are in hands of the lli or IV century and were later seen to·derive from the archive of Ammon Scholasti­ cus of Panopolis. Since all were fragmentary, though one was large (P. Duke inv. 18), none revealed its context. Only after other papyri from the Ammon archive came to light in 1971 did their source become apparent: three joined Cologne papyri (P.Koln inv. 4532, 4535 and 4539), three others pa­ pyri acquired by Duke in 1971 (P.Duke inv. 179, 182 and 193 respectively).