Piet and Etty Sijpesteijn fellow for papyri in the Allard Pierson collection

During the fellowship, Mark de Kreij will research the provenance of the Greek papyri (ancient texts unearthed in Egypt) in the Allard Pierson Museum collection. These papyri mostly come from a large acquisition made by Prof. Pieter Sijpesteijn for the University of Amsterdam in 1969, but the precise route from Egypt to Amsterdam remains unclear. To gain clarity, the focus will first be on the approximately 260 published papyri. References to provenance in Sijpesteijn’s editions and archival materials will be analyzed, alongside information from colleagues and internal evidence suggesting connections to published papyri from other collections. This research aims to document the acquisition history of the Allard Pierson papyri and determine whether they all arrived in Amsterdam through legal means.

Mark de Kreij is Assistant Professor of Ancient Greek and Papyrology at Radboud University, where he teaches Greek language and literature. His research focuses on the history of the ancient book. Since 2021, he has worked on uncovering forgotten papyrus collections in The Netherlands, and is an expert in the legality and ethics of papyrus acquisition.