ANCIENT HISTORY SEMINAR:
EGYPT IN LATE ANTIQUITY
(CLA/HIS 4150 A)
Professor:
Office:
Telephone:
E-mail:
Classes:
Office Hours:
Jitse H.F. Dijkstra
DMS, room 10110 (10th floor)
562-5800 (ext. 1325)
jdijkstr@uottawa.ca
Monday, 13:00 – 14:20, MRT 251
Wednesday, 11:30 – 12:50, MRT 251
Tuesday, 11:30 – 12:30
Thursday, 10:00 – 11:00
or by appointment
Aims of the course
The focus of this advanced undergraduate seminar is on a particular time and place:
Egypt in Late Antiquity. Although Egypt has always been thought of as anomalous as
compared with the other provinces of the Roman Empire, the administration of Late
Antique Egypt (AD 283–641) becomes increasingly similar to the other provinces in the
Roman East. Another politically, socially and culturally defining factor that can be
compared with other parts of the East Roman Empire is Christianity, which became the
dominant religion in this period. However, unlike other parts of the Roman East, the
evidence for Late Antique Egypt is quite stunning. Especially the preservation of
thousands of papyri in Greek and Coptic (Egyptian written in Greek script) adds to a
detailed picture of a Late Antique society in transformation, a picture that is exemplary
for other parts of the Empire during this period. In this course, we will investigate some
aspects of this society in detail. Its aim is therefore to get an overview of the period with
a special interest in the local and the regional, and an emphasis on the cultural change
that took place in all segments of society. In spite of this detailed picture, there is no
pretence to cover all facets of the Late Antique World: the course merely serves as a first,
though highly detailed, encounter with this complex world.
Text Book
R.S. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993)
available for $ 38 at All Books, next to the Bytowne Cinema, on Rideau St.
Evaluation
Oral presentation and outline Research Paper:
Mid-term test:
Seminar presentation:
Research Paper:
Classes
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10 %
30 %
20 %
40 %
This course consists of two parts. In the first half (until the mid-term test, the Monday
after the Reading Week), the emphasis will be on acquiring a profound background
knowledge of Late Antique Egypt by means of the text book. At the same time, the basis
for each student’s research projects is laid by collecting the evidence and presenting on it
in the oral presentations. In the second part, the emphasis is on writing down the results
of the research that has been conducted. While the theoretical knowledge gathered in the
first part is worked out in a series of case studies presented by the professor, the student is
required to write his/her research paper and present it during the seminar presentations.
Thus, beside gaining an intimate knowledge of Late Antique Egypt – through the theory
of the textbook and the research projects – the student will be taken step by step through
the writing process.
Class attendance
Attendance in this class is absolutely required, unless there are serious reasons for not
attending (the student needs an official confirmation of this!). This means not only that
students are expected to be physically (and mentally!) present in class but also that they
have thoroughly prepared the required reading for it. For each class that is missed without
legitimate reason, or that has been insufficiently prepared, 0.1 (out of 10!) will be
distracted from the student’s mid-term and after the mid-term, from the student’s
Research Paper.
Oral presentation
After four and a half weeks of theoretical classes (after Thanksgiving weekend), the
students have to present the primary and secondary literature they have collected for the
topic of their Research Paper in an oral presentation of no longer than 8 min. Students
will be divided into groups of two (groups will be assigned well in advance) and present
their dossiers together in order to limit the number of presentations and because it is a
good learning experience. The source material collected should be presented in the form
of a hand-out (1-2 pp.), which is given to the professor at the beginning of the class. In
the presentation, the students should summarize the main directions in scholarship on
their topic. Secondly, they need to present a logical question emanating from their
material and give clear directions as to the ways in which they are going to answer this
question (= a first draft of outline of their Research Paper; 1-2 pp.). The presentations are
followed by a short discussion.
Outline of Research Paper
With the feedback of their fellow students and the professor, they can then modify the
ideas they have on their topic and make it into an outline of the Research Paper (ca. 2
pp.), which has to be handed in the Wednesday after the reading week. The outline
should contain more detailed information than the one presented at the Oral Presentations
and is to be handed in by each student individually. The presentation of the first draft of
the outline, the amount of literature collected, the participation in class and during the
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presentation, the clarity of the outline and arguments will be factors in coming to the first
mark, which is, essentially, a progress report on the students’ research.
Mid-term test
Directly after the reading week the assigned parts of Bagnall’s book with accompanying
class notes will be tested.
Selected topics
After the mid-term test the professor will give several presentations on selected topics.
These presentations serve to support and stimulate the preparation of the research papers.
There is no homework for these 1,5 weeks. Students should use this time to start writing
their papers.
Writing week
After the presentations by senior scholars, there are no classes for a week. This time the
students must use to finish a preliminary version of their paper. There is room for
personal feedback from the professor upon appointment or through e-mail before and in
the writing week.
Seminars
In the next two weeks the students have to present preliminary versions of their papers.
This means that the student has to pretend that he/she is already handing in the final
version of the paper. After a short summary of the project by the presenters not exceeding
5 min., referees will be appointed (to be announced) who have to ask at least one
question. The referees should briefly state in their comments what they find attractive/not
so attractive about the papers, leading to one or more questions (in total not exceeding 3
min.). After these 8 min. there is ample room for a group discussion.
The papers need to be circulated before class. The student must hand in the preliminary
version of his/her paper (in hard copy!) to the professor and the referee at least one class
before the presentation. The professor will mark the presentation on how it summarises
the main line of thought in the paper (the student has to concentrate on: 1. the main
question of the paper; 2. the evidence collected, eventual problems with collecting and
the limitations to the evidence; 3. the results of the research/answer to the main question),
originality and familiarity with the subject, and the way the questions from the audience
are answered. In addition, the quality of the remarks by the referee will be taken into
account for his/her mark.
Final Paper
After the seminar, the student has two weeks to adjust the paper, and in support of that
he/she will receive the comments by the referee and the professor. This final paper
consists of 15 to 18 pp.’s with line spacing 1.5 (footnotes included but bibliography
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excluded) and based on several primary and secondary sources. The paper consists of 1. a
titlepage with student’s name, number, date, course title and paper title; 2. an introduction
with a research question; 3. the main body of the text divided with headings containing
the argument(s); 4. a conclusion. Additional instruction will be given during the course.
The paper needs to be submitted two weeks after the seminar presentation. The papers
will be marked on:
a. originality
b. style
c. use of sources and number of sources used
Needless to say, the paper needs to conform to the standard rules of spelling and
presentation. Points will be distracted if these standards are not met.
The paper also has to be handed in on time. Every day of delay will cause a distraction of
10 % of the mark for the paper.
Course outline
Wednesday, September 5: Introduction to Late Antique Egypt; outline of the course
Required reading: Bagnall, Egypt, Introduction (12 pp.)
Monday, September 10: The Environment: the land, its resources, the division of time
etc.; introduction to projects for papers: What is expected? How do I collect evidence for
my project? Assignment of projects
Required reading: Bagnall, Egypt, Chapter 1 (30 pp.)
Wednesday, September 12: The Cities
Required reading: Bagnall, Egypt, Chapter 2, pp. 45-109 (66 pp.)
Monday, September 17: The Villages
Required reading: Bagnall, Egypt, Chapter 3, pp. 110-47 (59 pp.)
Wednesday, September 19: City and Country
Required reading: Bagnall, Egypt, Chapter 4 (33 pp.)
Monday, September 24: People and Families
Required reading: Bagnall, Egypt, Chapter 5 (24 pp.)
Wednesday, September 26: Power and Dependence
Required reading: Bagnall, Egypt, Chapter 6 (22 pp.)
Monday, October 1: Languages, Literacy and Ethnicity
Required reading: Bagnall, Egypt, Chapter 7 (31 pp.)
Wednesday, October 3: Religion
Required reading: Bagnall, Egypt, Chapter 8 (49 pp.)
Monday, October 8: THANKSGIVING, no classes!
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Wednesday, October 10: Oral presentations
Monday, October 15: Oral presentations
Wednesday, October 17: Conclusion; preparation for mid-term
Required reading: Bagnall, Egypt, Chapter 9 (16 pp.)
Monday, October 22, and Wednesday, October 24: NO CLASSES!!! Study break.
Monday, October 29: MID TERM TEST!
Wednesday, October 31: Selected topics: Late Antique Egypt from the archaeological
evidence
Hand in Research Paper outline
Monday, November 5: Selected topics: papyrology, an introduction
Wednesday, November 7: Selected topics: the ‘Alexandrian World Chronicle’
reconsidered
Monday, November 12: no classes; time to write papers and individual feedback
Wednesday, November 14: no classes; time to write papers and individual feedback
Monday, November 19: seminars
Wednesday, November 21: seminars
Monday, November 26: seminars
Wednesday, November 28: seminars
Monday, December 3: Selected topics: TBA; MOVIE: Agora
Wednesday, December 5: MOVIE: Agora
All papers have to be handed in two weeks after the seminars (that is, between
December 3 and 12)
Bibliography
NB: this is not an exhaustive list but it merely serves to help you collecting your data. All
books are in Morriset Library or available online. The students are kindly requested not
to borrow the books mentioned here, especially not the reference works, but to consult
them in the library so that fellow students have access to them as well.
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Late Antique Egypt: General Introductions and Reference Works
- A.S. Atiya (ed.), The Coptic Encyclopedia, 8 vols (New York, 1991)
- R.S. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton, 1993)
- R.S. Bagnall (ed.), Egypt in the Byzantine World, 300-700 (Cambridge, 2007)
- A.K. Bowman, Egypt after the Pharaohs (Berkeley, 1986)
- W. Helck, E. Otto (eds), Lexikon der Ägyptologie, 7 vols (Wiesbaden, 1975-1992)
- J. Keenan, ‘Egypt’, in A. Cameron, B. Ward-Perkins, M. Whitby (eds.), The Cambridge
Ancient History, Vol. XIV: Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425-600
(Cambridge, 1998) 612-37
Papyrology
-
Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS), with many links:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/projects/digital/apis/index.html
- Checklist of editions of Greek, Latin, Demotic and Coptic Papyri, Ostraca and
Tablets: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/texts/clist.html
- Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri (DDBDP), though Papyrological Navigator:
http://www.papyri.info/
- A.S. Hunt, Select Papyri, 3 vols (Cambridge, 1950-2)
- P.W. Pestman, The New Papyrological Primer (Leiden, 1994; 2nd edition)
- J. Rowlandson (ed.), Women and Society in Greek and Roman Egypt (Cambridge,
1998): a sourcebook with several Late Antique papyri in translation
- E.G. Turner, Greek Papyri. An Introduction (Oxford, 1980)
Dossiers
NB: when preparing your dossier, always start with what Bagnall, Bagnall (ed.), the
Lexikon der Ägyptologie (also English and French lemmata!) and the Coptic
Encyclopedia have to say about your topic! For papyrus texts in translation, always start
by looking up relevant texts in Rowlandson or Select Papyri!
1. Alexandria in Late Antiquity
Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great and remained the Greek capital of Egypt
throughout the Graeco-Roman period with the special status of ‘city’ (polis). With only a
few exceptions, the other capitals of the traditional districts of Egypt, the nomes, did not
attain city status until AD 202, when the Emperor Antoninus Pius declared all nome
capitals poleis. This, however, did not diminish Alexandria’s special status within Egypt
and it remained the most important centre of commerce and the intellectual elite in Late
Antique Egypt. What was the city like in Late Antiquity? Which different social groups
were living in the city? And what led to the social conflicts e.g. between ‘pagans’, Jews
and Christians? Assemble as many primary texts or other primary evidence as you can
find about Late Antique Alexandria and reconstruct an aspect of life in one of the largest
cities in the Late Antique World.
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- R.S. Bagnall, D. Rathbone (eds), Egypt from Alexander to the Early Christians (LA,
2004): Ch. on Alexandria
- , G. Bowersock, ‘Late Antique Alexandria’, in Alexandria and Alexandrianism (Malibu,
1996) 263-72
- C. Haas, Alexandria in Late Antiquity. Topography and Social Conflict (Baltimore and
London, 1997)
- W.V. Harris, G. Ruffini (eds), Ancient Alexandria between Egypt and Greece (Leiden,
2004), Chs. 10 and 12
- Z. Kiss, ‘Alexandria in the Fourth to Seventh Centuries’, in R.S. Bagnall (ed.), Egypt in
the Byzantine World, 300-700 (Cambridge, 2007) 187-206
- J.S. McKenzie, The Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt, c. 300 BC to AD 700 (New
Haven, 2007)
- T. Myrup Kristensen, ‘Religious Conflict in Late Antique Alexandria: Christian
Responses to “Pagan” Statues in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries CE’, in G. Hinge, J.A.
Krasilnikoff (eds), Alexandria. A Cultural and Religious Melting Pot (Aarhus, 2009) 15875
2. The destruction of the Serapeum in 391/392 CE
In 391 or 392 CE things got out of hand between Christian and non-Christian groups
living in Alexandria. In the city’s streets riots broke out and with the help of the bishop of
Alexandria, Theophilus, the great temple of Serapis was destroyed by the Christians. This
incident is known as one of the most famous cases of Christian violence against ‘pagan’
cults. There are several good descriptions of this incident among the so-called Church
historians, Rufinus of Aquileia (11.22-23), Socrates (5.16-17), Sozomen (7.15) and
Theodoret (5.22), but also by the ‘pagan’ author Eunapius, all within about 50 years of
the event. Compare these sources and decide in how far they accurately describe the
events of 391/2 CE. There has also been done some recent archaeological work on the
Serapeum, which, though fragmentary, can be compared with the literary sources.
- literature of 1 for general background and specific depictions of the Serapeum incident
- for the Church historians, see D. Rohrbacher, The Historians of Late Antiquity
(London/New York, 2002); the professor will provide a dossier of English translations of
the relevant texts
- for the archaeological remains of the Serapeum, see J.S. McKenzie, S. Gibson, A.T.
Reyes, ‘Reconstructing the Serapeum in Alexandria from the Archaeological Evidence’,
JRS 94 (2004) 73-121, and the summary in McKenzie, Architecture (see no. 1)
- for a reconstruction of the events, see J. Hahn, ‘The Conversion of the Cult Statues. The
Destruction of the Serapeum 392 A.D. and the Transformation of Alexandria into the
“Christ-Loving” City’, in J. Hahn, S. Emmel and U. Gotter (eds), From Temple to
Church. Destruction and Renewal of Local Cultic Topography in Late Antiquity (Leiden,
2008) 335-65, with further literature
- for the date, see R.W. Burgess, J.H.F. Dijkstra, ‘The “Alexandrian World Chronicle”,
its Consularia and the Date of the Destruction of the Serapeum’, forthcoming, to be
provided by the professor
3. The philosophical schools and higher education in Late Antique Alexandria
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Athens and Alexandria were regarded as the ‘Oxbridge’ of Late Antiquity, the two most
renowned centres of higher education in the Late Antique world. In these schools Greek
philosophy and rhetoric were taught to the sons of the elite, who then moved on to major
positions in the government and, increasingly, the Church. Throughout Late Antiquity,
the ‘pagan’ aspect of higher education occasionally came into conflict with Christianity,
such as during the destruction of the Serapeum (see no. 2), with the murder of the
philosopher Hypatia in 415 and incidents with ‘pagan’ professors of philosophy in the
480s. Yet the philosophical schools of Alexandria remained open, whereas the one of
Athens was closed in 529. Find out what academic life was like in Late Antique
Alexandria, beside several texts made tangible by the recent discovery of a series of
lecture halls (auditoria) at Alexandria in which courses were taught, and why its school
remained in use despite a growing Christianisation of the city.
- literature of 1 for general background
- a dossier of texts in translation on the murder of Hypatia in 415, to be provided by the
professor
- E.J. Watts, City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria (Berkeley, 2006)
- T. Derda, T. Markiewicz, E. Wipszycka (eds), Alexandria. Auditoria of Kom el-Dikka
and Late Antique Education (Warsaw 2007)
- R. Cribiore, ‘Higher Education in Early Byzantine Egypt: Rhetoric, Latin, and the Law’,
in Bagnall, Egypt in the Byzantine World, 47-66
- E.J. Watts, Riot in Alexandria. Tradition and Group Dynamics in Late Antique Pagan
and Christian Communities (Berkeley, 2010)
4. The Economy of Late Antique Egypt
The standard narrative of the economy of the Late Antique World has always been one of
decline. Recently, partly on the basis of the study of the many papyri that are available
from Late Antique Egypt, in particular the hundreds of papyri from the family archive of
the Flavii Apiones at Oxyrhynchus that document their large estate, there has been
written much literature to refute this picture. It is now generally accepted among scholars
that the Late Antique economy, at least in the East, was not declining at all but had its
own dynamics. What happened in Egypt? How do the developments in Egypt relate to
developments in the East in general? And how can we illustrate our picture of the
economy of Late Antique Egypt with examples from documents preserved on papyrus?
- R.S. Bagnall, Later Roman Egypt: Society, Religion, Economy, and Administration
(Aldershot/Burlington, 2003): several chapters
- D. Rathbone, Economic Rationalism and Rural Society in Third-Century A.D. Egypt:
The Heroninos Archive and the Appianus Estate (Cambridge, 1991)
- J. Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity: Gold, Labour and Aristocratic
Dominance (Oxford, 2001)
- P. Sarris, Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian (Cambridge, 2006)
- T. Hickey, ‘Aristocratic Landholding and the Economy of Byzantine Egypt’, in Bagnall,
Egypt in the Byzantine World, 288-308, with further references
- Rowlandson, esp. Ch. 5
5. The army in Late Antique Egypt
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Soldiers had not only a military function in Late Antique society. They also frequently
had other functions, such as administrative and judicial duties. It also depended if soldiers
were garrisoned in a frontier town like Syene (modern Aswan) or if they were garrisoned
in a town in the countryside. And it made a difference if the soldiers were part of a
legion, or if they belonged to auxiliary troops. Study the papyri in the so-called
Abinnaeus Archive, the documents of Flavius Abinnaeus from Dionysias, the Faiyum,
who was a cavalry commander from 342 until 351 CE. What do we know about soldiers
in the society of Late Antique Egypt? And how does the Abinnaeus Archive fit in?
- H.I. Bell et al. (eds), The Abinnaeus Archive: papers of a Roman officer in the reign of
Constantius II (Milan, 1975)
- T.D. Barnes, ‘The Career of Abinnaeus’, Phoenix 39 (1985) 368-74
- J. Maspero, Organisation militaire de l’Égypte byzantine (Paris, 1912): still useful
survey for the army in general
- B. Palme, ‘The Imperial Presence: Government and Army’, in Bagnall, Egypt in the
Byzantine World, 244-70: best starting point for the army in Late Antique Egypt in
general
- El-Saghir et al., Le camp romain de Louqsor (Paris, 2000): army camp in temple of
Luxor, established under Diocletian
- J.H.F. Dijkstra, Philae and the End of Ancient Egyptian Religion: A Regional Study of
Religious Transformation (298-642) (Leuven, 2008) 23-32: for units at the southern
Egyptian frontier (Aswan region)
6. Egyptian hagiography and holy men
A remarkable feature of the Late Antique World is the rise of monasticism: everywhere
monks, from ascetics to pillar saints, were found who devoted their lives to God.
Although Syria was at least as important, Egypt has generally been seen as the cradle of
western monasticism. Ever since 1971, Peter Brown has written about these what he
called ‘holy men’. In concentrating on Egyptian holy men, why were these men regarded
as ‘holy’? What was their function in the society of Late Antique Egypt? And is the
appearance of the holy man a typically Christian phenomenon? Illustrate your answers to
these questions by referring to at least one Egyptian saint’s life, such as the Life of
Antony.
- P. Brown, Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (London, 1982) 103-52 (originally
published in 1971)
- P. Brown, ‘The Saint as Exemplar in Late Antiquity’, Representations 1 (1983) 1-25
- P. Brown, Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman
World (Cambridge, 1995) 57-78
- P. Brown, ‘Arbiters of Ambiguity: A Role of the Late Antique Holy Man’,
Cassiodorus: Rivista di studi sulla tarda antichità 2 (1996) 123-42.
- P. Brown, ‘The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity, 1971-1997’,
Journal of Early Christian Studies 6 (1998) 353-76 (also available online)
- P. Brown, ‘Holy Men’, in A. Cameron, B. Ward-Perkins, M. Whitby (eds.), The
Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. XIV: Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425600 (Cambridge, 1998) 781-810
- D. Frankfurter, ‘Syncretism and the Holy Man in Late Antique Egypt’, Journal of Early
Christian Studies 11 (2003) 339-85
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- J.E. Goehring, Ascetics, Society, and the Desert. Studies in Early Egyptian Monasticism
(Harrisburg, 1999)
- J.E. Goehring, ‘Monasticism in Byzantine Egypt: Continuity and Memory’, in Bagnall,
Egypt in the Byzantine World, 390-407
- T. Vivian, A.N. Athanassakis, The Life of Antony by Athanasius of Alexandria
(Kalamazoo, 2003): English translation
7. The Archaeological Remains of Egyptian Monastic Sites
In the course of the fourth and fifth centuries AD, monasteries filled the landscape.
Contrary to what is depicted in the literary sources, not all monks renounced the world by
going into the desert. In fact, most Egyptian monasteries and monastic communities were
found on the boundaries between the inhabited Nile valley and the desert. Collect the
archaeological evidence for the preservation of these monasteries. In most cases, this
means that an older structure has been incorporated into a newer complex. What is left of
these monasteries? What were the roles of the monasteries within Egyptian society? What
do the archaeological remains tell us about monastic rituals and practice? Discuss in
detail specific sites such as the Monastery of Shenoute at Atripe (known as the ‘White
Monastery’), or the monastic cells in the Wadi Natrun.
- literature on Egyptian monasticism in general under 6
- G. Gabra, Coptic Monasteries. Egypt’s Monastic Art and Architecture (Cairo/New
York, 2002)
- A. Egberts, B.P. Muhs, J. van der Vliet (eds), Perspectives on Panopolis. An Egyptian
Town from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest (Leiden, 2002): Chs. by Emmel
and Orlandi on Monastery of Shenoute
- D. Brooks Hestrom, ‘Divine Architects: Designing the Monastic Dwelling Place’, in
Bagnall, Egypt in the Byzantine World, 368-89
- E.S. Bolman, ‘Depicting the Kingdom of Heaven: Paintings and Monastic Practice in
Early Byzantine Egypt’, in Bagnall, Egypt in the Byzantine World, 408-33
- S. Davis, ‘Life and Death in Upper and Lower Egypt: A Brief Survey of Recent
Monastic Archaeology at Yale’, Journal of the Canadian Society for Coptic Studies 3-4
(2012) 9-26, with an up-to-date overview of monastic excavations by Yale University at
the Shenoute Monastery and Wadi Natrun; available from professor
8. The Dioscorus Archive
In 1905-1907 the French Egyptologist Lefebvre discovered a lot of papyri in modern
Kom Ishqaw, ancient Aphrodite. This lot contained a small library of classical works
(among them a famous codex of a lost work of the Hellenistic comedy writer Menander),
writing exercises and the family archive of the local aristocrat Dioscorus spanning a
period of time from ca. 492 to 590 CE and consisting of 700 to 800 papyri. This is not
only one of the largest family archives preserved on papyrus, among the papyri are also
poems by Dioscorus himself. He was consequently mocked as ‘the worst poet from
Antiquity’ but in recent years this has been proven to be too simple. Dioscorus was a
notary and in this function wrote legal documents at the gouvernor’s court at
Antinoopolis between ca. 567 and 573. Apparently, these documents were accompanied
by elaborate poems. Rather than seeing him as a poet, Dioscorus was thus a lawyer. What
more do we know of the life of Dioscorus and his family? Use the documents to describe
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the archive and the information it contains on a society that was already on the brink of
the Middle Ages.
- J. Maspero, ‘Un dernier poète grec de l’Égypte. Dioscore, fils d’Apollos’, Revue des
Études Grecques 24 (1911) 426-81
- H.I. Bell, ‘An Egyptian Village in the Age of Justinian’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 64
(1944) 21-36
- T. Gagos, P. van Minnen, Settling a Dispute. Toward a Legal Anthropology of Late
Antique Egypt (Ann Arbor, 1994)
- J.-L. Fournet, Hellénisme dans l'Égypte du VIe siècle: la bibliothèque et l'œuvre de
Dioscore d'Aphrodité, 2 vols (Cairo, 1999)
- J.-L. Fournet, C. Magdelaine (eds.). Les archives de Dioscore d'Aphrodité cent ans
après leur découverte (Paris, 2008)
- Dijkstra, Philae and the End, 1-11, with further references
- texts: Rowlandson, nos. 20, 116-7, 155; Select Papyri (Loeb) I, no. 87, II. Nos. 218,
363, 385
- for publications (without translation, but with comments and introductions) see J.
Maspero, Papyrus grecs d’époque byzantine. Catalogue général des antiquités
égyptiennes du Musée du Caire, 3 vols (Cairo, 1911-6) = P.Cair.Masp. and H.I. Bell,
Greek Papyri in the British Museum, vol. 5 (London, 1917) = P.Lond. V.
9. Women in Late Antique Egypt
As in the ancient Mediterranean World in general, the emphasis in Classics has long been
on men, and their perspective of society. This changed with the pioneering work of Sarah
Pomeroy on women in classical Greece in the 1970s and the application of gender studies
to ancient sources. A gender studies approach can also be applied to Late Antique Egypt:
how did women interact with men and what was their role in society? How does the
position of women in Late Antique Egypt relate to the position of women elsewhere in
the Late Antique World? Illustrate your reconstruction by means of the documents.
- D. Montserrat, Sex and Society in Graeco-Roman Egypt (New York, 1996)
- T.G. Wilfong, The Women of Jeme: Lives in a Coptic Town in Late Antique Egypt (Ann
Arbor, 2002)
- R.S. Bagnall, R. Cribiore, Women’s Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800 (Ann
Arbor, 2006): essential reference work and sourcebook for women in Late Antique Egypt
- T.G. Wilfong, ‘Gender and Society in Byzantine Egypt’, in Bagnall, Egypt in the
Byzantine World, 309-27, the best and most up-to-date starting point
- many translations in Rowlandson!
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