Papyrology Q&A pre-game
Tomorrow, Thursday May 25th at 8am PST we’ll have a Q&A with part of our Papyrology Team. We’re collecting questions for them in the #papyrology-qa channel on Discord. Details will also be posted on the Livestream page.
As a quick taste of the expertise of our Papyrology Team, they weighed in on the question of whether Scroll 1 might have been folded before it was rolled up. The CT scan suggests this, as you can clearly see a fold at the very end, and then two layers of papyrus spiraling out:
Professor Richard Janko weighed in:
A number of rolls were rolled upon themselves with no central stick (umbilicus); in fact, this was more frequent than them having a stick in the middle. The image certainly makes it look as if this one is rolled on itself in the sense that it goes outward again. However, writing on the back with the end of the text being written on the back of the end of the roll) is very rare indeed (but such a case has just come to light in Philodemus’ On Providence, now being edited by Claudio Vergara). However, it is more likely that this roll had a short length of itself folded back in order to make a more solid middle, given that it was not to have an umbilicus. Let us hope that we will soon find out which is the case here.
Professor Federica Nicolardi agreed, and asked if we can determine how long the folded back area is:
I agree that this roll had a short final portion folded back. I do not have parallel cases in mind, but still it does not surprise me too much, and, as professor Janko pointed out, may be aimed to make a more solid middle. Do you know how many cm in length were folded back like this? If it is very short, we may perhaps even think it was unintentional. If it was larger (but I do not think it is the case) it could perhaps be a strategy to protect the end title of the work.
The handwriting would still be on the recto of the papyrus (as you say, facing the other sheet that it was folded up against).
Professor Gianluca Del Mastro added:
Regarding the folding of the rolls, as Prof. Janko and Nicolardi have already pointed out, I also wrote that the Herculaneum rolls only rarely have the stick (umbilicus) at the end and that the last sheet was folded back on itself in most cases (cf. Titoli e annotazioni bibliologiche nei papiri greci di Ercolano, Naples 2014, p. 13 f.). This rolled portion at the end should not normally contain writing on the verso. We currently know of about 20 Herculaneum rolls also written on the verso, but not in the final part.
Looking at the CT scans, it is hard to tell how long the folded papyrus is, since the layers get bunched up and hard to follow as you spiral out. Stephen Parsons from EduceLab spotted one potential end to the folded portion after about 3 wraps:
If you want to weigh in, definitely enlighten us on Discord!
Papyrology Q&A
We already have a number of excellent questions collected in #papyrology-qa, but if you have more, be sure to add them! With your help we’ll have a most productive session. Tomorrow, Thursday May 25th at 8am PST. See you then!