Social Networks in Byzantine Egypt - Softcover

Ruffini, Giovanni

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521367964 ISBN 13: 9780521367967

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2011

Synopsis

Social network analysis maps relationships and transactions between people and groups. This text was the first book-length application of this method to the ancient world, using the abundant documentary evidence from sixth-century Oxyrhynchos and Aphrodito in Egypt. Professor Ruffini combines a prosopographical survey of both sites with computer analyses of the topographical and social networks in their papyri. He thereby uncovers hierarchical social structures in Oxyrhynchos not present in Aphrodito, and is able for the first time to trace the formation of the famous Apion estate. He can also use quantitative techniques to locate the central players in the Aphrodito social landscape, allowing us to see past the family of Dioskoros to discover the importance of otherwise unknown figures. He argues that the apparent social differences between Oxyrhynchos and Aphrodito in fact represent different levels of geographic scale, both present within the same social model.

About this title

Product Description

Social Networks in Byzantine Egypt This 2008 text was the first full-length study using network analysis to concentrate on the ancient world. Full description

Review

" Ruffini has made an important and provocative addition to modern scholarship on the social history of late antiquity." --BCMR

"The book's pioneering use of social-network theory, underpinned by rigorous quantitative analysis, is a welcome contribution to papyrology and the social history of the Byzantine world. The future of the field looks promising, indeed."
The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Elisabeth R. O'Connell, The British Museum

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521367964
• ISBN 13: 9780521367967
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 290