Egypt in Late Antiquity 2: Egypt in Late Antiquity 2: Papyrology, a Crash CoursePapyrology, a Crash Course

Papyrus, plural: Papyri

Coptic Ostracon, 1st – 4th cent. AD

Birth Certificate on a Wax TabletLatin and Greek (128 AD)P.Mich. Inv. 766

Parchment, ca. 500 CE

Two limitations:

- Many papyri lost (see also limitations of sources for Egypt in general!) - biases in the material, e.g. by over-representing the elite and the city

Book of the Dead on papyrus, from ROM, Toronto, 4th century BCE

Philodemus Project: Papyri from Herculaneum

Oxyrhynchus: B.P. Grenfell & A.S. Hunt

Vindolanda Inventory No. 85.057

Checklist of editions:http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/papyrus/texts/clist.htmlLook up P.Oxy., P.Cair.Masp.

Looking up and searching texts in the original Greek:http://papyri.info/

Looking up information/meta-data on individual texts, archives, names, etc.: http://www.trismegistos.org/Look up info on Abinnaeus archive

Papyrology on the Web

Some remarks on the Environment (Bagnall, Ch. 1)

Inundation = flooding of the Nile

Seasons:

Inundation: late July – late November- no time for lands-but: harvesting orchard crops-Start work on vineyards- contracts- starting ploughing of fields

Germination (harvest): late November to late March- sowing-Continuing work on vineyards etc.- maintenance work

Harvest: late March – late July- harvest + threshing- Paying taxes, rents