Papyrus collection Jena

Featuring more than 2,000 papyri and ostraca, the Institute of Classical Studies’ Papyrus Collection is one of the larger ancient collections of its kind in Germany. It was founded before the First World War.  Most of its papyrus fragments and mummy cartonnages came to Jena through purchases of the German Papyrus Cartel between 1904 and 1913. In later years, the collection was completed by smaller, private collections. These most notably include the private collection of Friedrich Zucker, papyrologist, Hellenist, and twice Rector of Friedrich Schiller University Jena. The collection features few but important literary papyri such as the famous Irenaeus papyrus and a fragment from Euripides’ Bacchae. Most of the pieces, however, are documentary papyri, e.g. private and administrative letters, edicts, treaties, bills, and receipts. The papyri date from early Ptolemaic times (3rd c. BC) to the Arab conquest (7th c. AD), and very few later pieces (up to the 11th c. AD) are part of the collection, too.  Most of them are written in Greek, Demotic and Coptic, some in Arabic, and very few in Latin.

Today, the papyrus collection is used for teaching at the University of Jena. Several third-party funded research projects were and continue to be dedicated to the collection’s scholarly analysis.