Menches, Komogrammateus of Kerkeosiris

Book excerpt: This is the first study of Menches, village scribe (komogrammateus) of Kerkeosiris between 120 and 110 B.C., on the basis of the complete body of documents from his archive. The author first presents and discusses the only source material: the papyri found inside crocodile mummies at the Egyptian village Tebtunis during the winter of 1899/1900. After establishing the precise nature of these papyrus documents, the book goes on to explore what we can learn from them about Menches' (re)appointments to the post of village scribe; his position in the Ptolemaic bureaucracy; his contacts - written and otherwise - with peers and superiors; his day-to-day tasks, mainly concerned with fiscal land administration; and, in a final chapter, his dealings with a 'strike' of colleague village scribes and a 'strike' of farmers at his village.