THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND
The work of this Society has two main branches: the first is the excavation of Egypt's buried treasures and the publication of careful records of the finds; the second is the preservation and translation of the inscriptions, including papyri found in the course of excavation. The Society has already published hundreds of papyri, the most important being included in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri edited by Professors Grenfell and Hunt.
In a lecture given at the rooms of the Royal Society, Burlington House, on Friday, February 20th, on "The Historical Value of Greek Papyri," Mr. H. Idris Bell, a member of the staff of the British Museum, gave a scholarly review of the work already done in the publication of papyri, both in this and in other countries, and laid stress on the necessity for further work in this direction. He pointed out that, although this country was holding its own in the matter of publication of fresh material, it was falling behind other countries in the work of comparing and computing results and the tabulation of the information thus obtained.
The lecturer said papyri help to correct the false perspective in which we see history. We tend to see it as a succession of dramatic events and of great personalities, and economic processes attain a precision and clearness which is not obvious to contemporaries. But this is not our attitude towards our own time, and documents show us that it was not that of our predecessors. Great events of history occur but seldom, and when they do they are recorded from the purely personal point of view. The historian cannot chronicle minor interests, but the papyri serve as the "acid test" of the objectivity of his narrative, and for this reason it is well that the student should supplement his reading of history by some study of documents, and for no department of ancient history have we a body of documentary evidence comparable to the papyri.
Papyri make us acquainted with the ordinary man, his style of living, his domestic relations, and his family life; it thus becomes possible to study the popular psychology of Græco-Roman Egypt, and so, by analogy, to some extent, the Græco-Roman world.
With regard to administration papyri show us the actual working, not the theory, of administration, and the two rarely exactly coincide. So too with law; the practice of the law usually differs from the theory of law, and papyri reveal the practice and show us the applied law.
Turning to religion, papyri mostly illustrate the popular attitude towards religion; there is not much on mystery cults, but they show the attitude of the individual towards the deity. It is also possible from them to trace the borrowings of Christianity from Paganism and to contrast the Christian and the pagan attitude.
The lecturer gave many interesting illustrations from papyri, including letters from parents to children and children to parents, letters of condolence, letters from men engaged upon business or war to their wives and families, which give a vivid picture of the life of the time.
Sir Frederic Kenyon, K.C.B., who was in the chair, in thanking the lecturer emphasised the importance of the study of papyri and the scope this branch of research opened for original work. Here is a vast field of labour, at present only superficially worked; the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; certainly they are indefatigable, but more workers are needed if the full value is to be extracted from these papyri. Other countries are alive to the importance of the work, but our own Universities are somewhat apathetic and need arousing.