Nov 7, 2019
LJS 489 - Nawaz letter with the seal
This letter was written on parchment in the 4th or 5th century in the northern Hindu Kush region (in modern Afghanistan). It features ten lines of Bactrian language in Greek cursive script in which Nawaz instructs Ram-yol, the recipient, to give good treatment to a third individual named Siz-bur. The letter is a palimpsest, written over an earlier, illegible document, with lines of the earlier writing visible in the margins on the left and bottom edges. A strip almost cut away along the bottom edge is threaded through a clay seal of a divine face surrounded by a sunburst.
This specimen is so ancient! Click here for the facsimile, or here for additional information.