Images courtesty of University of California, The Bancroft Library.
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June 25. 1907
Dear Mrs Hearst,
Dr Hunt and I have
now completed our edition of Part
II of the Tebtunis Papyri, and
the book will be issued by Mr Frowde1
of the Oxford University Press in
three weeks from now. The volume
consists of papyri of the Roman
period, together with a long
appendix on the geography of the
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Fayûm, and though hardly as
important as a whole Part I, which
consisted of Ptolemaic texts, includes
a number of very interesting papyri.
Apart from the indices, there are
440 pages,2 and the remuneration
due to Dr Hunt and myself
jointly is therefore £410. (four
hundred and ten Pounds).3 We should
be very much obliged if you could
kindly pay us this sum as early as
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convenient. The work has been spread
over three years.
There still remain to be published
the early Ptolemaic papyri from
mummy cartonnage, which will
form Part III. These have been
mostly unrolled4 and in part
deciphered, but we do not expect
to have the volume ready for two
or three years.5
Our excavations at Oxyrhynchus
are now finished,6 and next winter
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we expect to remain in England
owing to lack of funds for excavating,
but hope to return to Egypt in the following
winter.7
We are hoping that the Reisners8 may
come this summer to Oxford.9 It is an
excellent thing that he has been appointed
to conduct the excavations of the
government in Nubia.10
With kindest regards from Dr
Hunt and myself,
2. It actually came out to 424 pages.
3. Equal to £42,890.96 in Sep. 2025, according to the Bank of England inflation calculator.
4. An odd description for mummy cartonnage.
5. In the event, the first part of P.Tebt. III would not appear until 1933. Its editors were A.S. Hunt and J.G. Smyly, assisted by B.P. Grenfell (died 1926), E. Lobel, and M. Rostovtzeff.
6. Grenfell had had a breakdown during the final 1906/7 season.
7. Grenfell would never excavate again and would not return to Egypt until the spring of 1920.
9. This seems not to have occurred.
10. An emergency survey conducted in the wake of the construction of the Aswan Low Dam; see further The archaeological survey of Nubia: Report for 1907-1908, Cairo 1910. The survey would last 4 seasons.