Friday 11 July 2014

Papyrus Questions that will not go away


@DrScottCarroll cited by Faces and Voices:
17 October 2011: “Landed in the UK and retrieved a private collection of papyri including unpublished biblical and classical texts.”
20 October 2011: “Retrieved a mummy mask, covered w/ gold made on the inside with discarded papyri paper-mache. Long-lost works will be extracted from it.”
22 October 2011: “Classical papyri identified in the recently acquired collection including one of the earliest-known works of Plato and many more to follow.”

27 November 2011: [...] Now in Istanbul looking at a collection of unpublished papyri.” Same day, later tweet: “My eyes feasted on classical texts, royal decrees, and Biblical and Gnostic texts; nearly 1,000 papyri hidden in this private treasure-trove.”
What do the words "retrieved" and "private collection" mean in these contexts? Does he simply mean "buy" and "seller" by these terms? Where did the "unpublished" papyri in the UK come from and why was the owner unable to get a friendly UK scholar to cast an eye over them and pick out something nice to publish before he sold them? Lack of time, maybe? Where did this mummy-mask with gold come from? How does the new buyer know that long-lost works will be obtained, before he's even got it home? This group of a thousand papyri in Istanbul, where did they come from? They would not be connected with the other previously unnoticed papyri which have been surfacing on the market, precisely from Istanbul would they? What happened to the Classical texts and royal decrees if the Biblical texts went to another collector (did they)? Where are all these manuscripts now, three years later? Will Brill be publishing them?

 Dr Carroll's twitter feed breaks off mysteriously... shortly after 12 sty 2012: " I was on @atlandco this morning 2 talk abt @PassagesExhibit in #Atlanta & show off some cool biblical artifacts."


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Paul, Scott disappeared from Twitter, but is as active as ever. He is just moving around; look at one of his last enterprises: http://www.bethel.edu/events/torah-dedication
http://www.bethel.edu/news/clarion/articles/2014/April/bethel-torah
Isn't it interesting? Indiana Scott Carroll is the main character of my next project. Be patient...

 
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