Ancient Egyptian papyrus written in the Armenian script but the text is Greek

The phenomenal papyrus for Ancient Armenians, dated between the 5th and 7th centuries [late Ancient/Early Medieval period], is a stunning piece of history in Egypt containing a Greek text in the Armenian script.

Scholars presume that an Armenian soldier wrote it in the Byzantine army or a merchant stationed in Egypt.

This ancient papyrus is not only of interest to Armenian historians but also to classical scholars. The papyrus is written in Armenian script, but the entire text is Greek.

It is the only one written with Armenian letters among hundreds of thousands of papyrus fragments discovered during the past century. It brings together several disciplines.

As the studies of historians have pointed out, the Armeno-Greek papyrus is also the oldest example of written Armenian we have, predating by several centuries the earliest surviving manuscripts.

It is the oldest surviving manuscript and the only papyrus written in Armenian script, which is sometimes called simply "Armenian papyrus".

The script is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (inventory number BnF Arm 332).

Why Armenian-Greek? Because it’s a Greek text written in the Armenian script.

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