BGU or Berliner griechische Urkunden (commenced in 1895) is an ongoing publishing program of Greek documents, primarily Greek papyri by the

Berlin State Museum The Berlin State Museums (german: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters, several research institutes, libraries, and supporting facilities. They are overseen ...

s, primarily from the papyrus collection of the

Egyptian Museum of Berlin The Egyptian Museum of Berlin (german: Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung) is home to one of the world's most important collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts, including the iconic Nefertiti Bust. Since 1855, the collection is a part of t ...

. The project was originally entitled ''Ägyptische Urkunden aus den Königlichen Museen zu Berlin; Griechische Urkunden'' (Royal Museums) but then changed the title to ''Staatlichen Museen'' when the Museums' status changed. The term "

papyrologist Papyrology is the study of manuscripts of ancient literature, correspondence, legal archives, etc., preserved on portable media from antiquity, the most common form of which is papyrus, the principal writing material in the ancient civilizations ...

" itself was coined in connection with the establishment of the BGU project.Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Papyrologists 1994 ed. Adam Bülow-Jacobsen Page 35 "So, there is more to the seemingly arbitrary choice of BGU as the first papyrological edition. In fact, the idea of calling scholars dealing with papyri 'papyrologists' first came up in relation to BGU. In the preface to P.Gen. 1, dated March 1, 1896, ..." The founding editors were Emil Seckel and Wilhelm Schubart.

References

{{reflist Greek-language papyri Ancient Greek works