The Findspots of Papyri Excavated at Tebtynis by the Italian Missions 1928-1936

This paper presents new evidence on the archaeological context of the Tebtynis papyri excavated by the Italian missions in the 1930s, drawing on previously unpublished documentation from the Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli» in Florence. Special attention is given to the so-called “deposit” discovered in March 1931 and to the papyri found within the temple precinct, as a set of records preserves the exact findspots of discoveries made daily between January and March 1931, allowing fragments to be associated to specific buildings. Included is a description of boxes containing partially unsorted Tebtynis materials at the Istituto, offering hypotheses about their provenance and the identification of new fragments of both known and previously unattested manuscripts. The study presents a register of the available documentation from 1928–29 to 1935–36, arranged by excavation season and supplemented with concordance lists by date and findspot, integrating this data with previously published reports, correspondence, and excavation diaries. The final section discusses new insights into the distribution of papyri around the temenos and the identification of certain buildings, as well as the challenges associated with the large volume of fragments and incomplete archival records, emphasizing the potential of this documentation to further contextualize the Tebtynis temple library.