Tebtunis

Tebtunis was a city in Ancient Egypt. It was located in the present-day village of Tell Umm el-Baragat, in the Al Fayyum Governorate, Lower Egypt. The town was also known as Theodosiopolis during the Greco-Roman period.

History

Tebtunis was founded around 1800 B.C. by the Twelfth Dynasty Pharaoh Amenemhat III. The town flourished during the Ptolemaic period and is famous for the many papyri in Demotic and Greek found there. These papyri give information about how people in Tebtunis lived from day to day. For example, one papyrus was found that gave 'minutes' of a meeting of a group of priests. On this papyrus were the names of the priests, what the meeting was about, and a date – indicating that it was written during the Ptolemaic period. In Tebtunis, there were many Greek and Roman buildings. Tebtunis was a rich town and was a very important regional center during the Ptolemaic period.

Among the Tebtunis papyri are preserved many Egyptian astronomical and astrological texts, including several copies of the Book of Nut.

Bibliography

• Merola, Marco. "Letters to the Crocodile God". Archeology Magazine, November-December 2007.

Tebtunis Papyri Volumes

• The Tebtunis papyri vol. I, edited with translations and notes by Bernard P. Grenfell, Arthur S. Hunt and J. Gilbart Smyly, 1902 at the Internet Archive
• The Tebtunis papyri vol. II, edited with translations and notes by Bernard P. Grenfell, Arthur S. Hunt and J. Edgard Goodspeed, 1907 at the Internet Archive
• The Tebtunis papyri vol. III part 1, edited with translations and notes by Arthur S. Hunt and J. Gilbart Smyly, 1933 at the Internet Archive

External links

• The Papyrus Carlsberg Collection - Inventory of Published Papyri (many Tebtunis papiri)

Coordinates: 29°07′N 30°45′E / 29.117°N 30.750°E