Documentary Snapshots from Seventh-Century Egypt: Local Responses to Regime Transitions

The seventh century of our era witnessed dramatic events and transformations in the political, religious, and cultural landscape of the Near East and North Africa. Egypt did not escape the turmoil and subsequent changes. It had been relatively tranquil since its annexation to Rome in 30 BCE, but the seventh century brought a series of shocks. The country was invaded and conquered twice, first by the Sasanian Persians and then by the Arabs, who brought an end to the previous regime. Narrative sources in various languages convey a fairly detailed picture of political developments, but tell us little about how the high drama and changes affected the lives of local people and how they responded. For insight into these questions, we depend on the writing materials preserved in the sands of Egypt, papyri and ostraca. Letters and contracts, lists and accounts, receipts and chits offer unique glimpses of everyday life in the ancient world. They constitute primary evidence for administrative, social, and economic history of a kind that is hard to obtain from any other part of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. Papyrologists have been deciphering, translating, and interpreting these texts for the benefit of the wider scholarly community for over a century, but large numbers of important texts await further study and publication. The work is necessarily slow and meticulous given the formidable technical challenges involved; we publish new texts, but also review those published previously, with the help of our ever-growing experience and technological advances. The goal of the project is to make a large amount of completely new or understudied evidence available to scholars in various disciplines.

Abschlusstagung 10.-11. September 2024: https://www.berliner-antike-kolleg.org/link/egypt7