Institute of Papyrology Papyrus Collection

The Institute of Papyrology houses a collection of about 11,000 papyri, parchments, rag papers, and ostraca from Egypt, built up continuously since the first acquisitions in 1897

Alongside the Berlin collection (Museums of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) and the Cologne collection (Institute of Classical Studies of the University), the Heidelberg Papyrus Collection is one of the largest in Germany. In detail, the collection comprises approximately 5,000 Greek papyri and parchments, approximately 3,200 Arabic papyri and rag papers, approximately 1,370 Coptic papyri and parchments, 815 Demotic papyri, smaller holdings of Hieratic, Middle Persian, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac papyri or parchments and rag papers, as well as 760 ostraca.