ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the limitations of interpreting archaeological evidence through the lens of group identity in the study of late antique religion and ritual. By looking at two papyri (P. Berol. 9794 and P. Louvre N 2391) and the hymns they contain (that also surface on a number of other artefacts and in a range of literary contexts), I seek to problematize how we approach the ritual actors behind the production and use of these manuscripts in terms of their putative belonging to “religions” and “cultic groups” as readily tangible social entities. By tracing the patterns of how the ritual hymns from these papyri were shared between religious frameworks that are conventionally thought of as mutually exclusive (Christians, “Gnostics,” “Hermetics” etc.), I argue that the widespread idea of an intimate link between doctrinal thinking and ritual of particular groups may be problematic. Ultimately, I suggest that it can be more economical and epistemologically valuable to view late antique artefacts, and the rituals they prescribe, as evidence of individual agency of particular scribes and their commissioners, rather than of “religious communities” as group actors.
