AN ANCIENT POSTAL SYSTEM

New Zealand Tablet, 2 October 1913, Page 61

AN ANCIENT POSTAL SYSTEM

The museum of the Imperial German Post, one of the most remarkable special collections in existence, has recently been enriched by the purchase of a remarkable document of the third century b.c. It is the so-called Hibeh papyrus dating from the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (259-253 b.c), and relates to the transmission of letters by the Egyptian postal service along the Nile, and is stated in the museum note to be the first evidence found of the existence of a State postal service in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. The papyrus is a sort of postal way-bill, and registers the delivery of letters from hand to hand. The five officials mentioned appear to be postillions and postmasters. The text commences somewhat as follows: A Postal Way Bill. ". On the sixteenth (N.N.) handed to Alexander six letter-packets. One was a letter-packet for King Ptolemy, another was a letter-packet and two letters thereto attached for Apollonius, Minister of Finance one letter-packet K i or the Cretan Antiochus; one letter for Menodorus, and one tied up with the others for Chelios. On the seventeenth Alexander made over the post-bag to Nikodemus (signed Nikodemus). In the

first hour of dawn Phoenix the younger, a son of Heracleitua of Macedon, handed one letter-packet to Aminos. He gave the post-fee to Phanias.'l , - X ! So the papyrus goes on. t In each- case the exact hour of the transfer of the letters is noted, together with details of other letters picked up by the postillion on his route. There is mention of a letter to Throgenes, 'president of the office of elephant hunting,' of another to Zoilos, the director of the imperial revenue office in Hermopolis; to Dionysus, the traffic manager in Arsinoe, etc., etc. The official document is on the back of the papyrus, the front having apparently been used for the calculations of a landed proprietor or his bailiff, but the space which the bailiff left is also employed for postal notices, a curious illustration of the necessity, even in the Government service, for saving every bit of the valuable paper. The document was only discovered a few years ago, and, owing to the high value placed upon it, is protected from the sunlight by a green curtain. • " •"...'