Die beiden Orte Tebtynis und Soknopaiu Nesos sind aufgrund ihrer reichhaltigen griechischen und demotischen Papyrusfunde und der in jungster Zeit wiederaufgenommenen Grabungen dafur pradestiniert, als Ausgangspunkt fur interdisziplinare Forschungen zum Fajum im 1. und 2. Jahrhundert n. Chr. zu dienen. Doch lange Zeit fand so gut wie kein Austausch zwischen Agyptologen, griechischen Papyrologen und Archaologen, die sich mit dem hellenistischen und romerzeitlichen Agypten beschaftigen, statt. Das interdiszi-plinare Symposion, das vom 11.-13. Dezember 2003 in Sommerhausen bei Wurzburg stattfand, fuhrte Wissenschaftler aus aller Welt zusammen, um aus deren aktuellen Forschungen ein umfassenderes Bild der wirtschaftlichen, sozialen und kulturgeschichtlichen Zusammenhange sowie Impulse fur eine kunftige engere Zusammenarbeit der Nachbardisziplinen zu gewinnen. Aus dem Inhalt (14 Beitrage): M. Capasso, Libri, Autori e Pubblico a Soknopaiu Nesos. Secondo Contributo alla Storia della Cultura letteraria del Fayyum in Epoca Greca e Romana I W. Clarysse, Tebtynis and Soknopaiu Nesos: The Papyrological Documentation through the Centuries P. Davoli, New Excavations at Soknopaiu Nesos: the 2003 Season A. Jordens, Griechische Papyri in Soknopaiu Nesos A.v. Lieven, Religiose Texte aus der Tempelbibliothek von Tebtynis - Gattungen und Funktionen.

This book presents the first detailed study of Tebtunis, a village in Egypt within the Roman Empire, in the first century AD. It is founded on the archive material of the local notarial office, or grapheion, which was run by a man named Kronion for most of the mid-first century. The archive, unparalleled in antiquity, includes over two hundred documents written on papyrus which attest a wide range of transactions made by the villagers over defined periods of time, in particular the years AD 42 and 45-7 under the reign of the emperor Claudius. This evidence provides a unique insight into various aspects of village life: the level of participation in the written contractual economy; the socio-economic stratification of the village, including the position of women, slaves, priests, and the role of the elite; the functions of associations; the types and importance of agriculture; and non-agricultural activities. This multitude of data reveals a highly diversified village economy, a large involvement in written transactions among all the strata of the population, and a rural society living mostly above subsistence level. Tebtunis provides a model of village society that can be used to understand the majority of the population within the Roman Empire who lived outside cities in the Mediterranean, particularly in the other eastern and more Hellenized provinces.

Linguistic varieties such as female speech, foreigner talk, and colloquial language have not gone unnoticed when it comes to Classical Greek, but little is known about later periods of the Greek language. In this collective volume leading experts in the field outline some of the most important varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek, basing themselves on a broad range of literary and documentary sources, and advancing a number of innovative methodologies. Close attention is paid to the linguistic features that characterize these varieties, with in-depth discussions of lexical, morpho-syntactic, orthographic, and metrical variation, as well as the interrelationship between these different types of variation. The volume thus offers valuable insights into the nature of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek, laying the foundation for future studies of linguistic variation in these later stages of the language, while at the same time providing a point of comparison for Classical Greek scholarship

The study of ancient law has blossomed in recent years. In English alone there have been dozens of studies devoted to classical Greek and Roman law, to the Roman legal codes, and to the legal traditions of the ancient Near East among many other topics. Legal documents written on papyrus began to be published in some abundance by the end of the nineteenth century; but even after substantial publication history, legal papyri have not received due attention from legal historians. This book blends the two usually distinct juristic scholarly traditions, classical and Egyptological, into a coherent presentation of the legal documents from Egypt from the Ptolemaic to the late Byzantine periods, all translated and accompanied by expert commentary. The volume will serve as an introduction to the rich legal sources from Egypt in the later phases of its ancient history as well as a tool to compare legal documents from other cultures.

This volume explores the significance of literacy for everyday life in the ancient world. It focuses on the use of writing and written materials, the circumstances of their use, and different types of users. The broad geographic and chronologic frame of reference includes many kinds of written materials, from Pharaonic Egypt and ancient China through the early middle ages, yet a focus is placed on the Roman Empire.