Amheida III: Ostraka from Trimithis: Greek Texts from the 2008-2013 Seasons: Vol 2

Bagnall, Roger S./ Ast, Rodney/ Caputo, Clementina (Contributor)/ Cribiore, Raffaella (Contributor)

ISBN 10: 1479853747 / ISBN 13: 9781479853748

Published by New York Univ Pr, 2017

About this Item

294 pages. 12.00x11.00x1.00 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # x-1479853747

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Amheida III: Ostraka from Trimithis: Greek Texts from the 2008-2013 Seasons: Vol 2
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1479853747
• ISBN 13: 9781479853748
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 1.18 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

This archaeological report provides a comprehensive study of the excavations carried out at Amheida House B2 in Egypt's Dakhleh Oasis between 2005 and 2007, followed by three study seasons between 2008 and 2010. The excavations at Amheida in Egypt's western desert, begun in 2001 under the aegis of Columbia University and sponsored by NYU since 2008, are investigating all aspects of social life and material culture at the administrative center of ancient Trimithis. The excavations so far have focused on three areas of this very large site: a centrally located upper-class fourth-century AD house with wall paintings, an adjoining school, and underlying remains of a Roman bath complex; a more modest house of the third century; and the temple hill, with remains of the Temple of Thoth built in the first century AD and of earlier structures. Architectural conservation has protected and partly restored two standing funerary monuments, a mud-brick pyramid and a tower tomb, both of the Roman period.
This is the second volume of ostraka from the excavations Amheida (ancient Trimithis) in Egypt. It adds 491 items to the growing corpus of primary texts from the site. In addition to the catalog, the introductory sections make important contributions to understanding the role of textual practice in the life of a pre-modern small town. Issues addressed include tenancy, the administration of water, governance, the identification of individuals in the archaeological record, the management of estates, personal handwriting, and the uses of personal names. Additionally, the chapter "Ceramic Fabrics and Shapes” by Clementina Caputo breaks new ground in the treatment of these inscribed shards as both written text and physical object. This volume will be of interest to specialists in Roman-period Egypt as well as to scholars of literacy and writing in the ancient world and elsewhere.

About the Authors

Roger S. Bagnall is Leon Levy Director and Professor of Ancient History Emeritus at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. He is author, co-author, and editor of many books including Egypt in Late Antiquity and Everyday Writing in the Graeco-Roman East.

Rodney Ast is Academic Director in the Institute for Papyrology at Heidelberg University. His research interests include Greek and Latin papyrology and epigraphy, the administrative and social history of Greco-Roman Egypt, and Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade. He is co-director of excavations at Berenike on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

Clementina Caputo is a Research Fellow at the Politecnico di Milano-DABC and chief ceramologist at Soknopaiou Nesos/Dime (Fayyum), Trimithis/Amheida (Dakhla Oasis), Umm al-Dabadib (Kharga Oasis), and Tuna el-Gebel (Middle Egypt). Her main area of research is the ceramic material culture of Roman and Byzantine Egypt.

Raffaella Cribiore is Professor of Classics at New York University. She is a specialist in ancient education and her work at Amheida has included study of the schoolroom excavated at the site. Before moving to NYU in 2008, Cribiore taught at Columbia University and in 2010 was the Townsend Lecturer at Cornell.