Among the new characters in N2676 there is
10186 G GREEK ARTABE SIGN
This is one of the many signs found in papyri, such as those edited by Kenyon. This symbol represents apparently a measure of volume used for grain. It appears as a small circle, smaller than omicron, with a long overline, much longer than a macron.
While I have been looking for the various forms of the symbol for zero I find in other papyri quite exacty the same character used for 'zero'. I make this comparison after studying many photographs of papyri, those provided with Kenyon's editions on the one hand, and on the other, Alexander Jones' recent volume of horoscopes, Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus. The attached image is take from Jones, part of a column of zeroes written this way.
This is fascinating information.
However, I'm unclear what you propose.
Should we continue to encode this as ARTABE SIGN and just note the use of this shape for 'zero' in an annotation?
Should we change it to another name and add the annotation for 'arabe'?
Should we take any other actions?
A./
