"Miscellaneous fragments" and "specimens of the faker's art": fake papyri and the British-American Papyrus Syndicate

In recent decades, spurred by high-profile cases such as the Gospel of Jesus' Wife forgery, there has been a growing interest in the study of forged papyri and their relationship with the antiquities market. While this increased attention has shed much needed light on the collection of forged papyri, attention has largely been on collecting in a post-1970 UNESCO Convention world. Often ignored are the many forgeries collected during the early years of papyrology and papyrus collecting. Focussing on the activities of the British-American Papyrus Syndicate, this article examines the functioning of this collective, and identifies some of the purchasing practices that ensured forgeries were acquired by some of the most important papyrus collections around the world. It will be argued that the very methods of acquisition that allowed the Syndicate to function so successfully within the Egyptian antiquities trade during the 1920s, ensured that they regularly encountered and purchased numerous forgeries.