Vessel's notations from Tebtynis

his book is the edition of any kind of text written or incised on various types of vessels found at Tebtynis during the excavations of the joined Mission of Università di Milano and Ifao under the directorship of Professor Claudio Gallazzi. At present this publication includes treatment of 820 pieces found from 1997 to 2003 mostly in ancient debris deposits or in destroyed layers by the work of previous excavators or farmers.

Considering that this is the first book to group and present these texts, the introduction contains a list of published or described notations of this type from Egypt and a method to identify a text as a "vessel's notation".

The majority of these texts consist solely of personal or place names, dates and indications of the content of the vessel, the capacity etc. The date ranges from the second half of the third century BC to the third century AD (with a few in the fourth and fifth century AD). The absolute dating proposed here has been established based on palaeographical details (considering the small amount of texts or the fragmentary character of many of the texts), the stratigraphy and the pottery.

The volume includes photographs of all the published pieces and, where it was possible, a drawing of the vessel type has been made.