Ostraka Varia

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The Astrolabe

An ancient instrument for solving problems of location and distance, as well as time

Astrolábon órganon is the word used in Ptolemaeus Syntaxis 5.1 to describe a form of armillary sphere consisting of both fixed and rotating rings for determining the ecliptic co-ordinates of stars. Also called astrolabe were two-dimensional representations of the celestial sphere: over fixed disks with a representation of the horizon of the earth (in each case for a specific geographic latitude) and its parallels up to the zenith lies a rotating representation of the heavens (called ‘spider’ or ‘net’) with zodiac and indicators for some of the brightest stars. On the back is an indicator (‘alidade’) with visor plates for calculating the height of the stars. The astrolabe allows its user to determine the hours of day and night, the positions of stars, and the height and depth of objects on earth (mountains, buildings, wells). The oldest extant descriptions of the flat, planispheric astrolabe come from Iohannes Philoponus, 6th century AD, and (in Syrian) from Severus Sebokht, c. 660 AD. Indirect references may date back as early as Theon (4th cent.). Between the 8th and the 9th centuries the Arabs appropriated the knowledge of the astrolabe. At the end of the 10th century and again in the 12th century, they passed it on to Western Europe, where astrolabes were constructed up until the 17th cent. Today, one Byzantine astrolabe (from 1062) is extant, as are some 750 Arabic-Islamic astrolabes and approximately the same number of European astrolabes.

This information is abstracted from Brill's New Pauly, the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. For more information see www.brillsnewpauly.com or visit our website catalog: www.brill.nl/bnp
Brill’s New Pauly and the complete original Der Neue Pauly, the recognized standard reference works for students and scholars of the ancient world are also available online. This dual-language edition offers basic and advanced search facilities and is fully browsable. New English translations are added as they become available. See www.paulyonline.brill.nl for more information and a demo version.

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Ostraka Varia

Tax Receipts and Legal Documents on Demotic, Greek, and Greek-Demotic Ostraka, Chiefly of the Early Ptolemaic Period, from Various Collections (P. L. Bat. 26)

S.P. Vleeming

Books

Available
Publication year: 1994


Series:	Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava, 26
ISBN-13 (i)The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) has been changed from 10 to 13 digits on 1 January 2007:	978 90 04 10132 6
ISBN-10:	90 04 10132 2

Cover:	Cloth with dustjacket
Number of pages:	xiii, 173 pp. num. figures, 16 pl.

List price:	€ 113.00 / US$ 167.00

Reviews

'Sven Vleeming is to be thanked for this study in depth of several published and unpublished, Greek Demotic and Greek-Demotic ostraka. By this work which sets a very high standard for future publications of ostraka indeed, it has once again become clear that even very small documents, when thoroughly studied, can contribute largely to our knowledge of Graeco-Roman Egypt.'
Mark Depauw, Bulletin Codicologique, 1995.
'La publication de S.P. Vleeming impressionne incontestablement.'
E. van 't Dack, Revue d'Histoire de Droit, 1996.
'...useful and handsome volume...extremely easy to use...the excellent introductory essays and copious notes place the ostraca in a broader context and point to other editions and studies of ostraca.'
Brian Muhs, Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists, 1996.

Readership

All those from the fields of Classical History, Legal History, Egyptology, Papyrology, interested in Egypt in the Late Period, as well as those interested in Egyptian (notably demotic) philology.

About the author(s)

S.P. Vleeming, reader in demotic Papyrology in the University of Leiden, specialises in the study of the juridical documents of Late Period Egypt.

A large majority of the 65 ostraka published in this volume come from Egypt in the Third Century B.C. Some thirty are from Elephantine; these comprise a number of Greek and Greek-demotic receipts. Not unimportant new texts from Hermonthis and Thebes (among others, a fine example of a temple oath) add notably to the diversity of the volume. Although of course tax receipts predominate, these are present in a rich variety, and their commentaries add much to our knowledge of fiscal matters in this period.
As a nouveauté the Greek and demotic texts are published on exactly the same footing, and a constant effort is made to merge the separate worlds of Greek and demotic papyrology.
Hand-facsimiles facilitate the consultation of the individual texts; the whole is rounded off by photographic plates showing all texts in full.

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