Archetypes and Antigrapha in the papyrological Documentation: preliminary Considerations.

The present contribution aims at examining a particular pattern of communication, employed for the exchange of information between the offices of Ptolemaic Egypt: the “cascade-letters”. This definition refers to the mechanism of appending letters by copying them in the same sheet of papyrus, one after the other, often in chronological order. This model, which relates to certain stylistic, textual, visual and material features, is frequently introduced and marked by the formula ἀντίγραφον ὑπόκειται, “a copy is subjoined below”, and finds many parallels in the administrative documents. Four instances of the process will outline the main characteristics connected to it, will show the stages behind the scenes, following the successive steps which made up the chain, and will distinguish the choices of communication of the various officials involved in the hierarchy. Multiplication of documents and reuse of files are further aspects that will be taken into account in the overview, together with the attempt to retrace the motivations for the adoption of the model from the perspective of the functionaries.