This is the first study of Menches, village scribe ( komogrammateus ) of Kerkeosiris between 120 and 110 B.C., on the basis of the complete body of documents from his archive. The author first presents and discusses the only source material: the papyri found inside crocodile mummies at the Egyptian village Tebtunis during the winter of 1899/1900. After establishing the precise nature of these papyrus documents, the book goes on to explore what we can learn from them about Menches' (re)appointments to the post of village scribe; his position in the Ptolemaic bureaucracy; his contacts - written and otherwise - with peers and superiors; his day-to-day tasks, mainly concerned with fiscal land administration; and, in a final chapter, his dealings with a 'strike' of colleague village scribes and a 'strike' of farmers at his village.

Description based on print version record.