What's New in Papyrology

Recent publications of papyri & ostraca 4th BC-8th AD; conferences, lectures etc. from Papy-L and other sources as noted. PLEASE SEND SUGGESTIONS

Thursday, January 24, 2013

e-sequence: Musical Mss.


e-sequence
Audiovisuelle digitale Repräsentation von Sequenzen Notkers des Stammlers († 912) aufgrund ausgewählter Handschriften.


Im Zeitalter der Karolinger im 9. Jahrhundert wurde mit den Neumen eine Notenschrift entwickelt, die den liturgischen Gesang, den so genannten Gregorianischen Choral und seine Erweiterungen wie die Sequenz, erstmals in entscheidend neuer Weise, nämlich dem genauen agogischen Verlauf entsprechend, aufzeichnen konnte. Obwohl die Musik, die im 9. und 10. Jahrhundert das Kloster St. Gallen erfüllte, längst verklungen ist, bieten die St. Galler Handschriften wertvolle Anhaltspunkte, diese heute wieder zum Leben zu erwecken. Durch ein sorgfältiges Studium der Handschriften zusammen mit den neuen digitalen Techniken ist es möglich, die Musik des Gallusklosters so weit als möglich zu rekonstruieren, die velorenen „soni“ wieder zu finden.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

DM: Dr. Mohamed El-Ashery (العشيري)




Prof. Magdy Ali sent out this obituary:

We have lost a very nice, decent and good friend on Tuesday night, January 15th Dr. Mohamed El-Ashery was born August 26 1961. He was working in Helwan University, Cairo. Mohamed was very helpful colleague and very respected friend. It is really a big loss. May ALLAH have mercy on his soul. Mohamed was buried yesterday in Cairo. We already miss him. To the colleagues of our list who do not know Mohamed El-Ashery, he was the third generation of the Egyptian papyrologists after Prof. Zaki Aly then Prof. Sayed Omar, Prof. Alia Hanafi and of course the late Prof. Abd Allah el-Mosallamy. He was extraordinary Greek papyri reader.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

"Multispectral documentation and image processing analysis of the papyrus of tomb II at Daphne, Greece"


Multispectral documentation and image processing analysis of the papyrus of tomb II at Daphne, Greece
Journal of Archaeological Science (February 2013), 40 (2), pg. 1242-1249 
Athina A. Alexopoulou; Agathi-Anthoula Kaminari; Athanasios Panagopoulos; Egert Pöhlmann



Abstract
This paper refers to the study of an ancient papyrus, dated ca. 420/430 BC, found in 1981 during an excavation at Daphne, Athens, Greece, using multispectral imaging combined with image processing analysis. It was assumed that the papyrus contained ancient Greek musical notation but the condition of the object hindered the drawing of any conclusion based only on visual examination. This fact, combined with the significance of the object itself, as it is the oldest papyrus which carries Greek text, pointed to the application of non-invasive techniques to enhance its readability. The multispectral imaging carried out in the range of 420–1000 nm enabled the detection of more letters on surface layers, at various places and orientations. False colour imaging proved to yield better results in distinguishing the letters compared to single wavelength recording. In some cases, letters from several layers underneath are revealed in the infrared. The letters present different greylevels according to the layer they belong. An interesting result coming from a simple subtraction of the infrared image at 1000 nm from the visible one at 660 nm is that different layers of the papyrus can be distinguished. The Application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that the best results, as far as the extraction of the letters from the background is concerned, are obtained when the second and the third images are merged. The automatic extraction of the letters is feasible to some extent but there is a certain amount of noise with similar characteristics that cannot be removed.

Highlights
► Deteriorated papyrus from ancient Greek tomb was studied using non-invasive methods. ► Visible–infrared multispectral- and infrared false colour imaging were applied. ► Text from underlayers was detected and legibility was overall improved. ► Image processing helped in distinguishing letters and differentiate script layers.


See also Musical finds from the Tomb of the Poet, and their interpretation

A significant archaeological find came to light some thirty years ago in Daphne, Attica. The so-called Tomb of the Poet dates back to the classical era (around 430 BC) and the excellent condition of the grave goods yielded valuable information to archaeologists – especially concerning music and musical instruments in ancient times.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

«Papyrologica Lupiensia» 20-21 (2011-2012)


Nuova pubblicazione del Centro di Studi Papirologici dell’Università del Salento, Lecce

«Papyrologica Lupiensia» 20-21 (2011-2012), Pensa Multimedia, Lecce 2013, pp. 266.

INDICE GENERALE

MARIO CAPASSO, Per Paolo Radiciotti.

MARIO CAPASSO, La noia di Jacqueline.

GIANLUCA DEL MASTRO, Il PHerc 566: L’Echelao di Epicuro.

DARIO INTERNULLO, Cicerone latino-greco. Corpus dei papiri bilingui delle Catilinarie di Cicerone.

NATASCIA PELLÉ, Il restauro dei papiri ossirinchiti greci della Sackler Library di Oxford. Prima campagna (2012).

ELINE SCHEERLINCK, Inheritance disputes and violence in women’s petitions from Ptolemaic Egypt.


Schede bibliografiche e recensioni

Mario Capasso, Scrinia curva. VIII.

Serena Ammirati-Paolo Radiciotti, Palaeographia Papyrologica. X (2011).

Paola Gagliardi, Rassegna bibliografica sul papiro di Gallo (anni 2004-2012).

Libri ricevuti
Notiziario

ISSN 1591-2140
Prezzo:
Euro 32,00


Distribuzione:
Pensa Multimedia s.r.l.
Via A.M. Caprioli, 8
 73100 Lecce
Tel. 0832.230435
Fax 0832.230896
info@pensamultimedia.it


Per cambi rivolgersi a
Centro di Studi Papirologici dell’Università del Salento
Via V.M. Stampacchia, 45
73100 Lecce
cspapiri@unisalento.it

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

CONFERENCE: Observing the Scribe at Work: Knowledge Transfer and Scribal Professionalism in Pre-Typographic Societies

Observing the Scribe at Work: Knowledge Transfer and Scribal
Professionalism in Pre-Typographic Societies
Macquarie University, Sydney
27-28 September 2013

Prior to the typographic revolution of the 15th century, the figure of the scribe was one of the keys by which civilisations were able to disseminate their power, culture and beliefs beyond their geographic, temporal, and even linguistic limits. Our access to the pre-modern world is mediated by the material and technological remains of scribal activity, the manuscript as an artefact of culture and administration. Every text preserved prior to the advent of printing bears witness to the activities of scribes. Yet as a social and professional group they are frequently elusive, obscured by other professional titles, reduced to mention in a colophon, or existing within a private sphere into which our sources do not reach. While much attention has been given to the scribe as a literary figure, the manuscripts offer a unique point of access to this group without the distortions of the literary tradition. This perspective, however, has frequently been restricted to a catalogue of errors, reducing the scribe to the transmission of an acceptable text, without recourse to the physical characteristics of the manuscript itself.

This workshop is built around the Australian Research Council funded project ‘Knowledge Transfer and Administrative Professionalism in a Pre-Typographic Society: Observing the Scribe at work in Roman and Early Islamic Egypt’. The project sets aside the often futile search for the historical figures of the scribe in favour of a focus on observable phenomena: the evidence of their activity in the texts themselves. Recognizing that the act of writing can be a quotidian and vernacular practice, it explicitly includes the documents of everyday life as well as the realms of the copying of literature, seeking paths back to an improved understanding of the role and place of scribes in pre-modern societies.

‘Observing the Scribe at Work’ will bring together specialists in pre-modern societies of the Mediterranean world and adjoining cultures, from the ancient Near East, through the Egyptian and Classical worlds to Byzantium and Renaissance Europe. The papers will contribute to a deeper understanding of the processes that drive the operation of pre-printing cultures, and transmit knowledge and traditions forward in human societies.

The workshop will be held at Macquarie University on 27-28 September 2013. Macquarie University cannot offer full funding for all participants traveling to Australia from overseas, but partial financial assistance will be awarded to select abstracts which closely address the themes of the workshop. Decisions to this
effect will be made by the end of April. 

We call for abstracts of up to 300 words that address the objectives of this workshop. These should be sent to jennifer.cromwell@mq.edu.au by 31 March 2013.

Inquiries: Malcolm Choat (malcolm.choat@mq.edu.au); Jennifer Cromwell (jennifer.cromwell@mq.edu.au)

Organising Committee
Malcolm Choat, Jennifer Cromwell, Korshi Dosoo, Rachel Yuen-Collingridge

Sponsors:
Australian Research Council
Macquarie University
Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University
Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research Centre 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

PSI Online

PSI-online Project


Papiri della Società Italiana 
Direzione scientifica
Guido Bastianini (Università di Firenze - Istituto Papirologico "G.Vitelli")
Edoardo Crisci (Università di Cassino - Dipartimento di Filologia e Storia)
Rosario Pintaudi (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana; Accademia Fiorentina di Papirologia e di Studi sul mondo antico - Firenze)

Progetto
PSI-online nasce dalla collaborazione scientifica e progettuale fra l’Università degli Studi di Cassino-Dipartimento di Filologia e Storia, la Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana di Firenze (http://www.bml.firenze.sbn.it/), l’Istituto Papirologico ‘G. Vitelli’ (http://vitelli.ifnet.it/) e l’Accademia Fiorentina di Papirologia e di Studi sul mondo antico (http://www.accademiafiorentina.it/). Esso si propone l’obiettivo di rendere disponibili online tutti i papiri sino ad oggi editi della Società Italiana per la ricerca dei papiri greci e latini (PSI), conservati in massima parte presso la Biblioteca Laurenziana, l’Istituto papirologico ‘G. Vitelli’, il Museo archeologico del Cairo e il Museo greco-romano di Alessandria d’Egitto.

Descrizione
Ideato e organizzato con l’apporto tecnico e finanziario dell’Università di Cassino, grazie alla disponibilità delle Istituzioni coinvolte e dei rispettivi responsabili, il progetto prevede la redazione di sintetiche schede descrittive dei materiali, strutturate in forma di database, e la digitalizzazione ad alta definizione delle immagini dei papiri. La scelta di organizzare e presentare il materiale in forma di schede autonome ne consente la versatilità d’uso e la facilità di gestione. Superando la concezione dei tradizionali database disponibili in rete, PSI-online si pone l’obiettivo di riproporre sul web l’esperienza tipica della consultazione diretta di un archivio di testi ed immagini, proponendo all’utente un modello innovativo di raccolta e gestione dei dati e l’opportunità di una nuova esperienza di lavoro online.
L’interfaccia presenta un ambiente operativo racchiuso in un’unica pagina digitale, in cui tutti gli elementi, informativi e operativi, si presentano e si muovono all’interno di un contesto unico e stabile. La dinamica di rappresentazione dell’informazione rinvia ad un ambiente basato su relazioni di tipo oggettuale: un unico elemento base, l’oggetto, si moltiplica e si modifica nelle forme, realizzando le funzioni di ruolo e complementarietà necessarie all’identificazione delle azioni-domanda poste al modello.
L’interazione dell’utente con i contenuti avviene attraverso la gestione di oggetti: ogni richiesta formulata al modello PSI-online produce un oggetto, che a sua volta – oltre all’informazione richiesta – offre la possibilità di operare azioni ulteriori, intervenendo sullo stato dell'oggetto stesso o producendone uno nuovo. All’avvio PSI-online presenta una maschera – oggetto login – in cui è richiesto il riconoscimento per accedere alla sessione di lavoro. Assolta la registrazione o il login, una seconda maschera – oggetto ricerca – permette di indagare il database: è possibile attivare contemporaneamente più percorsi di ricerca, conservando la disponibilità di accesso parallelo a ciascuno di essi. I dati risultanti dall’interrogazione producono ulteriori oggetti – schede segnature – contenenti informazioni di tipo testuale. Le schede di testo possono inoltre prevedere un legame diretto ad una o più immagini – scheda immagine – il cui contenuto può essere ingrandito ed indagato attraverso il ricorso a confronti con altre immagini significativamente collegate. Non solo le immagini, ma anche tutti gli altri oggetti possono essere posizionati liberamente sulla pagina secondo le esigenze dell’utenza e possono essere gradatamente ingranditi per permettere una migliore lettura dei contenuti. L’interazione può essere volontariamente interrotta o sospesa, depositando l’oggetto sul bordo della pagina, sotto forma di etichetta titolata. Da questo stato l’oggetto potrà essere richiamato in qualsiasi momento. I campi previsti nel database, e visualizzati nelle schede, riguardano i seguenti dati: segnatura, numero di inventario, luogo di provenienza, datazione, contenuto, materiale e tipologia del supporto, bibliografia sintetica; appositi simboli riportati su ciascuna scheda segnalano: la direzione delle fibre (nel caso di supporto papiraceo), la riutilizzazione del reperto (papiri opistografi) e l’eventuale ricongiungimento con altri frammenti. L’idea di concentrare in un unico archivio virtuale una collezione fisicamente dislocata presso diversi Istituti di conservazione; la possibilità di attivare, consultare e conservare un numero di schede e di ricerche teoricamente infinito; l’eventualità di confrontare due o più immagini fin nei minimi dettagli, con un ingrandimento medio leggibile di 8x rispetto alla dimensione reale del documento, sono segni tangibili dello sforzo tecnico e concettuale attuato a supporto della migrazione in rete della collezione PSI.

BOEP 2.1 Jan 15 2013

 Bulletin of Online Emendations to Papyri

Monday, January 14, 2013

EpiDoc Workshop, London, April 22-25, 2013

EpiDoc Workshop, London, April 22-25, 2013

We invite applications for a 4-day training workshop on digital text-markup for epigraphic and papyrological editing, to be held in the Institute for Classical Studies, London. The workshop will be taught by Gabriel Bodard (KCL), James Cowey (Heidelberg) and Charlotte Tupman (KCL). There will be no charge for the teaching, but participants will have to arrange their own travel and accommodation.

EpiDoc (epidoc.sf.net) is a set of guidelines for using TEI XML (tei-c.org) for the encoding of inscriptions, papyri and other ancient documentary texts. It has been used to publish digital projects including the Inscriptions of Aphrodisias and Tripolitania, the US Epigraphy Project, Vindolanda Tablets Online and Curse Tablets from Roman Britain, Pandektis (inscriptions of Macedonia and Thrace), and the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri. The workshop will introduce participants to the basics of XML and markup and give hands-on experience of tagging textual features and object description in EpiDoc as well as use of the tags-free Papyrological Editor (papyri.info/editor).

No technical skills are required to apply, but a working knowledge of Greek or Latin, epigraphy or papyrology and the Leiden Conventions will be assumed. The workshop is open to participants of all levels, from graduate students to professors or professionals.

To apply for a place on this workshop please email gabriel.bodard@kcl.ac.uk with a brief description of your reason for interest and summarising your relevant skills and background, by Friday March 1st, 2013.
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(Or link to http://www.icls.sas.ac.uk/about-us/news/epidoc-workshop-22-25-april-2013 for the text, if you prefer.)

Sunday, January 06, 2013

More from the APA


GAINST THE HISTORICAL VALIDITY OF THE SO-CALLED LIST OF ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARIANS IN P.OXY. X 1241

JACKIE MURRAY


This paper challenges the historical value of P.Oxy.X.1241, part of which is the list of Alexandrian Librarians. It questions the basic assumption that the list at col. i.5 - ii.30 is in fact a list of the heads of the Alexandrian library. It calls attention to the fact that every single chronological statement needed to be emended and shows the fallacious reasoning behind the editors' influential conclusion that the papyrus is the most trustworthy of all sources pertaining to the history of the library.
In 1914, B.P. Grenfell and A.S. Hunt published an anonymous 2nd cent. CE papyrus containing lists of famous artists, grammarians and historical/mythological inventors of weapons of practices of warfare. They observed its similarity to Hellenistic and Imperial mythographical catalogues and concluded: “Though the name of the compiler is unknown, the class to which this treatise is to be referred is thus clear; it is a characteristic product of Alexandrian erudition.” They, therefore, assessed the papyrus to be the most historically accurate source about the Alexandrian library. Their view has been accepted almost universally.


The papyrus is 6 columns with the list in question occupying col.i.17-ii.30. After a break of about 8 lines, the text picks up in the midst of a catalogue of grammarians, γραμματικοί, with a reference to “Philadelphus.” It is unclear who the grammarians in the first column were, but at the beginning of col.ii the text resumes with Apollonius of Rhodes, Eratosthenes, Aristophanes of Byzantium, Aristarchus, Apollonius the Eidographer, Aristarchus of Samothrace, Cydas the Spear-bearer, Ammonius, Zenodotus, Diocles and Apollodorus.


The first observation is that the library or of the position of librarian is not mentioned. The position that is explicit in the papyrus, however, is royal tutor (διδάσκαλος to royal children), and only two grammarians in the list are singled out as having held it: Apollonius of Rhodes and Aristarchus of Samothrace. Thus, it is only an inference of the editors that the list refers to “head librarians,” an inference that is apparently based on a supposition that royal tutor = head Librarian. Yet, the link between these positions is merely one of correlation, and the main basis for this correlation is P.Oxy.X.1241 itself. Rather than following this circular logic with the editors who assert that the list is “an account of the Alexandrian librarians,” it is submitted here that the list is as it appears, a catalogue of grammarians connected to the Ptolemies, some of whom were known to be heads of the library.


Additionally, the unemended list is full of chronological errors. Indeed, the editors found it necessary to emend every single chronological reference in the papyrus in order to make it consistent with other sources. Particularly egregious is the case of Apollonius Rhodius. The unemended text says that Apollonius was the teacher of the first king, διδάσκαλος τοῦ πρ[ώ]του βασιλέως, Ptolemy I Soter (304 — 283 BCE). This is prima facie false. The editors, prompted by this error, emended the text to say τρίτου βασιλέως, “the third king,” which reflects the chronology of Suda and MS H of the Vita A of Apollonius. Hence, Suda and Vita A are the basis of the papyrus’ corrected chronology. Nevertheless, the papyrus’ singular report that Eratosthenes succeeded Apollonius is preferred to the Suda’s report that he was Apollonius’ predecessor. Apart from the fact that the papyrus is most likely only referring to the position of royal tutor, it is fallacious reasoning for the editors to base their emendations on one source, then to conclude that the emended text is more reliable than that source. Accordingly, left unemended the papyrus is useless because it is full of errors; whereas emended it must be regarded as the least reliable of our sources concerning the history of the Alexandrian library.



PAPYRI VERGILIANAE: CONTRIBUTIONS OF PAPYROLOGY AND THE READING OF VERGIL IN THE EAST (1-VI CENTURIES)

MARIA CHIARA SCAPPATICCIO


Moving from Vindolanda to Nessana, from Oxhyrhynchus to Narmouthis, from Masada to the Mons Claudianus, a spread knowledge and reception of Virgil’s works in the Roman Empire (and in its provinces, in particular) is documented through papyrus and parchment scraps, wooden tablets and ostraka, all containing verses from the Aeneid, Bucolics and Georgics.


Virgil has, actually, the leading role in Latin calligraphic exercises by Oriental scribes (PHaw. 24; POxy. 3554; PMasada 721), but – as we know reading about the Arusianus Messius’ quadriga, too – he is also the main ‘instrument’ to teach and learn Latin language both in grammatical treatises (PLaur. III / 504; PMich. 459) and though Latin-Greek glossaries (PNess. 1; PRyl. 478+PCairo 85.644+PMil. 1; PBerol. 21138; PVind. 62; PSI 756); he was stored in libraries and sometimes object of annotations (PAnt. 29) or simply copied in manuscripts in his original hexametric sequences, just to be read and studied (PNess. 2; PBerol. 21.299; PSI 21: maybe it is not something accidental that all these papyri have signs of lectio, made by ‘second’ hands, different from the scribe himself) and his verses were also the object of rhetorical exercises and rewritings (PSI 142, a real Vergilian progumnasma). Nowadays, we have more than thirty fragments with Virgil’s verses, more than the ones of any other author of Latin literature; and it is not something secondary, especially if compared to what we know through the modern editions of Virgil’s works.
The acquisition of papyrological data in the Vergilian recensio is something recent: Roger Mynors (P. Vergili Maronis Opera, Oxonii 1969) collated only the parchment fragments from the Ambrosiana in Milan, the Palin. Ambr. L 120 sup., while, before him, in a partial edition of the Aeneid, Arthur Stanley Pease (Publi Vergili Maronis Aeneidos Liber Quartus, Cambridge 1935) used in his apparatus only the PSI 21 and the bilingual POxy. 1099. It was in 1973 that Mario Geymonat mentioned eighteen Virgil’s papyri and these will become twentynine in his new edition in 2008 (Vergili Maronis opera, Roma 20082): the role of papyri has been vitalized and ‘pondered’ at the same time. It has been vitalized as it was the first time that all the know Virgil’s papyri were presented as witnesses of Virgil text (together with manuscripts) and all mentioned in the critical apparatus; it has been ‘pondered’ as papyri go into Textkritik as witnesses of Textgeshichte without giving particular attention to their ecdotical relevance (Geymonat writes: haec fragmenta nos perraro ad textum Vergilianum emendandum adiuvant (…), maximi autem momenti sunt ad haec studia apud antiquos illustranda et ad formulas rationesque scribendi vel Graecas locutiones explorandas, p. XIII n. 34). What has to be emphasised is that Virgil’s editors – including the Spanish équipe (L. Rivero García – J.A. Estévez Sola – M. Librán Moreno – A. Ramírez de Verger (edd.), Publio Virgilio Marón. Eneida. Volumen I (Libros I-III), Madrid 2009) and Gian Biagio Conte (P. Vergilius Maro. Aeneis, Berolini – Novi Eboraci 2009) – followed the papyri’s (sometimes really old) editions, sometimes in a not critical way.
The paper will present the results both in a palaeographical and papyrological and in a philological and linguistic dimension and will give a balance concerning all the Virgil’s papyri, once having made an autoptical examination of most of them: papyri give significant contributions to our knowledge of how Virgil was read and learnt – and so, spread, acknowledged and understood – in the pars Orientis of the Empire, from the I a.D. till Late Antiquity.


Saturday, January 05, 2013

American Society of Papyrologists (ASP) Panel at the APA, Seattle, 2013

Ancient Lives: Greek Texts, Papyrology and Artificial Intelligence 
James Brusuelas

The “Ancient Lives” project is an international collaboration between multiple departments and institutions: The Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois, the Departments of Classics and Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and the Departments of Classical and Near Eastern Studies, Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, and Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota.  Through the Ancient Lives website, the project continues to amass an immense database of crowd-sourced transcribed texts in order to assist in the classification, cataloguing, and identification of the tens of thousands of papyrus fragments housed in the Sackler Library of the Ashmolean Museum.  Consequently, a digital database of both previously edited and unedited Greek papyri texts exists for the first time.  In addition to the computerized assistance in cataloguing and identifying documents and known literary texts, the aim of this project is to build a computational interface to assist in the critical editing of Greek texts. 

Two of the principal goals are: (1) to refine and implement a consensus algorithm, adapted from those used in the study of DNA sequencing, that collates multiple transcriptions, producing a variety of meaningful statistical data and digitally searchable transcriptions that will be accessible to scholars through a unique graphical user interface (GUI); 
(2) based on the extant strings of Greek characters, to implement algorithmic meaning extraction to assist in the contextualization and identification of unknown literary works through an automated projection of possible linguistic/word scenarios.  We are also aiming at computationally repairing gaps/holes in papyri through an automated projection of characters that are not only dimensionally suitable but also contextually sound through linguistic parallels elicited from the searchable online databases of Greek texts.  The purpose of this paper is to report initial project results and to outline in greater detail our methodology for building this computational interface.  In sum, we are merging human and machine intelligence – automated algorithmic methods – to increase the accuracy with which Greek texts are edited.  We are transforming image data from Oxyrhynchus papyri into meaningful information that scholars can use – information that once took generations to produce.

Homer and Hesiod in P.Oxy.  4648: Reconstruction and Interpretation
Michael Haslam

This paper examines the intriguing piece published as P.Oxy.  4648, “Prose on Star-Signs Quoting Homer, Hesiod, and Others,” edited by Dirk Obbink.  Published a decade ago, it plainly calls for attention, but has received virtually none.  (Glenn Most took over Obbink’s version of the Hesiod section unameliorated in his Loeb Hesiod, as T151.) I attempt to reach a more satisfactory reconstruction of the text, one that yields a better understanding of what is being said both about Homer and about Hesiod, and along the way to elicit something of the significance that the text holds for ancient literary criticism of each poet.

The text is written in a practiced bookhand, probably of the later 3rd century CE, reportedly on the back of a petition; there are remains of 33 lines of just one column, broken at either side.  What is under discussion is poets’ practical understanding of the constellations.  When our column begins, the author is discussing Homer; he moves on to Hesiod (appending mention of Aratus as Hesiod’s zelotes); then to Aeschylus and Sophocles; and there the papyrus breaks off.  I propose to deal with the sections on Homer and Hesiod, the first 23 lines.
 
The first tolerably clear (albeit largely restored) statement we meet is that Homer’s veiled meaning (αἰνιττόμενος) is that everything is controlled by the movements of the constellations.  I suggest that the author is here addressing a passage in the description of the Shield of Achilles, Il.  18.483-9 (485 ἐν δὲ τὰ τείρεα πάντα τά τ’ οὐρανὸς ἐστεφάνωται), and investing it with cosmological import, in line with Crates’ take on the Shield as a mimema tou kosmou.  Then, on my understanding of the text (different from Obbink’s), he proceeds to say that Homer conferred his astronomical knowledge on Odysseus.  Homer made advance arrangements (προοικονομῶν) for Odysseus’ skill at navigating by the stars in the Odyssey (5.272ff.) by endowing him with the ability to tell the time of night by the stars already in the Iliad (10.252f.), thereby lending plausibility to the Odyssey episode.  This implies that Homer wrote the Iliad with the subsequent Odyssey in mind, and tailored the prior poem accordingly, an interesting and unusual view of Homer’s compositional procedures.  I float the suggestion (without arguing the case) that the section on Homer may represent the Homeric criticism of Crates.

Then comes Hesiod.  Obbink took the papyrus’ “[X knew] these things likewise” to mean that Homer knew seafaring just as Odysseus did, but I argue that the sense is that Hesiod knew the workings of the constellations just as Homer did, this effecting the transition from the one poet to the other.  On this view the author is not differentiating the two according to their respective arenas of seafaring and farming (so Obbink, supplementing accordingly) but uniting them in their shared understanding of star-signs: he’s a lumper not a splitter.  (Cf.  H.H.  Koning, Hesiod: The Other Poet (2010), who unfortunately seems unaware of this text.) It is significant that the poet—Homer for Obbink, Hesiod for me—is introduced as ὁ ἡδυ]επής (suppl.  P.J.  Parsons ap.  Obbink, irresistibly).  I note the doubly allusive appositeness of conferring this distinctive epithet on Hesiod.  It is the epithet that Hesiod applies to his Muses (Cat.  1.1/Th.  1021, Th.  965); and in the later Greek and Roman tripartite classification of styles Homer’s Νέστωρ ἡδυεπής (Il.  1.247- 9) was the archetype of the “middle” style, the prime exemplar of which was Hesiod (Quint.  12.10.58-64, 10.1.52, cf.  Dion.Hal.  de comp.  23, Dem.  40).  I conclude by restoring coherence to the remainder of the Hesiod section, which defeated Obbink and Most.


Women’s Petitions in Later Roman Egypt: Survey and Case Studies
 Graham Claytor

Over 150 petitions from women survive from Roman and Byzantine Egypt.  Along with reports of proceedings on papyrus and imperial rescripts from outside Egypt, these constitute the best evidence we have for provincial women’s engagement with the law and help shape our view of the social position of women in the Roman Empire.  Taking the terminus of B.  Kelly’s recent study as a starting point, I first discuss petitions from women in the “long” fourth century (284- 400 CE) as a whole, and then examine the cases in which we can learn a little more about the women involved in litigation, in the context of archives.  I close by touching on the larger issues raised by Kelly and others, such as the agency of female petitioners and whether the legal system tended to undermine or reinforce traditional gender roles.

I focus on the “long” fourth century for three reasons.  First, Kelly’s study on petitioning and social control ends in 284 CE, the traditional papyrological divide between “Roman” and “Byzantine” Egypt.  R.S.  Bagnall, however, has shown that the real break was from the late fourth century on, when evidence for female petitioners is much scarcer and largely restricted to wealthy, educated widows (Bagnall, “Women's Petitions in Late Antique Egypt,” in Denis Feissel and Jean Gascou (eds.), La pétition à Byzance [Paris, 2004], 53-60).  The fourth century evidence continues to be marked by Kelly’s two “ideal types” of female petitioners: one, the woman isolated from male support through death, divorce, or other circumstances; the other, the woman of relatively high standing whose economic engagements brought her into legal conflict (Kelly, Petitions, Litigation, and Social Control in Roman Egypt [Oxford, 2011], 235ff.).  Thus, we can study these petitions in close comparison with the earlier period and in contrast to the later period.

A second reason is the prominence of female petitioners in the period 284-400.  From about 15% of total petitioners in the period 30 BCE - 284 CE, the percentage of female petitioners rises to over a quarter in the ‘long’ fourth century, then falls to about 10% after 400.  This paper explores the reasons behind this apparent surge, which is paralleled also in imperial rescripts, and argues that it represents a real rise in women’s participation in the legal sphere and independence, at least during the Tetrarchic period.
Third, the archives of this period offer the opportunity to learn more about the family situation and economic engagements of certain female petitioners.  I focus on the archives of Isidoros, Sakaon, Aurelia Demetria, and the descendants of Alopex in Panopolis.  The first archive presents a pair of sisters, Taesis and Kyrillous, whose engagement with litigation came early in life due to the deaths of both parents: their coming of age is marked by a struggle against their uncle for the control of their inheritance.  In the archive of Sakaon from Theadelphia, Artemis the daughter of Paesios and Heros uses the legal system to protect her children’s property after the death of her husband.  Finally, the archives of Aurelia Demetria and the descendants of Alopex give us valuable details from urban settings.  In Hermopolis, Demetria petitions about a disputed sale of land, and in Panopolis, we meet the oil-seller and landlady Theodora, whose business interests lead her to petition the prefect about a defaulting debtor.

This period offers us unparalleled evidence for women’s engagement in legal processes.  Through both a broad survey and a microhistorical approach, I argue that women in the ‘long’ fourth century actively engaged in legal processes to achieve their own goals and that this period of transition witnessed a slight relaxing of traditional gender roles.  Both trends were halted by the end of the century and reversed in the centuries to follow.


Outsourcing Army Duties: Foederati in Late Roman Egypt 
Anna Kaiser

This paper seeks to examine the status of foederati in Late Roman Egypt.  One hundred years ago Jean Maspero wrote an essay on 6th century CE foederati and soldiers (“Φοιδερᾶτοι et Στρατιῶται dans l’armée byzantin au VIe siècle,” BZ 21 [1912] 97-109).  Since then many more papyri have been edited that allow a better view of the Roman military organisation of Egypt in general and the question of foederati in particular.
The main focus of this paper is the status of foederati and their duties in Egypt, one of the more peaceful parts of the Late Roman Empire.  Included among these duties might well have been the screening of the road system in the Eastern Desert, formerly a well-known duty of Roman soldiers.  The Principate saw Egypt’s Eastern Desert dotted with small Roman outposts guarding the road system and important quarries.  By the 3rd century CE there is almost no evidence for them anymore.  This may give the impression that the roads through the Eastern Desert were unprotected, although they were seriously threatened by the Blemmyes, Egypt’s neighbours in the desert.  The continuing trade with Berenike and Myos Hormos should have mattered enough to maintain the military road screening system (cf.  O.Claud.  I-IV; O.Krok; O.MyosHormos; S.  Sidebotham, Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route, Berkeley 2011).  Papyrological and literary evidence together seem to suggest that those patrol duties formerly carried out by Roman soldiers were outsourced – to people and tribes living near the Roman borders.  These tribes may have even included the Blemmyes, a group that engendered a great deal of fear in the Egyptian inhabitants during the 5th and 6th centuries CE.  But both Eusebius and Abinnaeus, the praefectus alae of the ala V Praelectorum in 4th century Egypt, mention Blemmyan envoys in Constantinople, and Procopius refers to the retraction of the Roman frontier in 298 CE and gold delivered to the Blemmyes.  Some tribes of the Blemmyes therefore seem to have been Roman foederati (Eusebius, Vita Constantini 4, 7; P.Abinn.  1; Procopius, De bellis I 19, 27-37.) Another tribe appears to have formed the 6th century CE numerus of Pharanitae, which was stationed at Bau, a famous monastery, in the Thebaid.  The soldiers of this unit were first recruited in the Sinai peninsula, from a tribe living near the city of Pharan, not far from the famous Monastery of St.  Catherine (Ph.  Mayerson, “Pharanitai in Sinai and in Egypt,” BASP 47 [2010] 225-29).  The Latin word numerus, or its Greek equivalent ἀριθμός, was used for any kind of troop in Late Roman Egypt; the term does not distinguish between Roman soldiers or federates.  The Pharanitae may therefore provide another example of foederati in Late Antique Egypt – an example worth examining in more detail.

Friday, January 04, 2013

Improvements to Mertens-Pack 3

"Le CEDOPAL a le plaisir d'annoncer la mise en ligne des bibliographies des auteurs faisant partie du Catalogue des papyrus littéraires grecs et latins du CEDOPAL, et la mise à jour des bibliographies des sous-genres littéraires, via la page http://promethee.philo.ulg.ac.be/cedopalMP3/indexMP3.aspx (4. Bibliographies disponibles).
Bien cordialement,
Marie-Hélène MarganneCEDOPAL
Centre de Documentation de Papyrologie Littéraire
Université de Liège
Département des Sciences de l'antiquité"

Thursday, January 03, 2013

CHRONIQUE D'EGYPTE LXXXVII (2012) - FASC. 174


TABLES DE MATIÈRES –  INHOUDSOPGAVE    

luc limme & alain Martin, herman de Meulenaere (1923-2011) —
Jean bingen (1920-2012) … 3
association égyptologique reine élisabeth egyptologisch genootschap koningin elisabeth
conseil d’administration.
Beheerraad. – Bureau. Dagelijks Bestuur. – Chronique d’Égypte. – Bibliographie Papyrologique. Papyrologische Bibliografie … 15
Membre décédé. Overleden lid. – Nouveau membre. Nieuwe lid.
– Donateurs (2011) …16

égypte pharaonique – Faraonisch egypte

Études – Artikelen
Danijela Stefanović, the Middle kingdom stela from the Toledo Museum of Art … 17
Erhart Graefe, Nachträge und Korrekturen zum Korpus der Funktionäre
der Gottesgemahlinnen des Amun …24
Herman De Meulenaere (†), Compléments au Dossier thébain du troisième prophète d’Amon Pétamonnebnesouttaoui … 40
Klaus Parlasca & Dieter Kurth, Tutu und Buchis auf einem Relief in Baroda (Indien) … 60
Olaf E. Kaper, The Egyptian God Tutu: Additions to the Catalogue of Monuments … 67


Livres – Recensies
Mark Smith, Traversing Eternity. Texts for the Afterlife from Ptolemaic
and Roman Egypt
(Jean-Claude Goyon)  … 94
Penelope Wilson & Dimitris Grigoropoulos, The West Delta Regional Survey, Beheira and Kafr el-Sheikh Provinces (Herman de Meulenaere†) …98
Lesley Kinney, Dance, Dancers and the Performance Cohort in the Old Kingdom (Sibylle Emerit) … 99
Gabi Hollender, Amenophis I. und Ahmes Nefertari (claude vander- sleyen) … 103
François le Clère, Les villes de Basse Égypte au Ier millénaire av. J.-C. (Herman de Meulenaere†)  … 106 

égypte gréco-romaine – grieks-romeins egypte

Études – Artikelen
Gwen Jennes & Mark Depauw, Hellenization and Onomastic Change.
The Case of Egyptian P3-dí / Pete-names … 109
James l. O’neil (†), The Native Revolt against the Ptolemies (206-185 bc): Achievements and Limitations … 133
Lucas Michaelis, Zur Datierung eines Mumienporträtfragments … 150
Livres – Recensies
Francesca Schironi, Tò méga biblíon. Book-Ends, End-Titles, and coron-
ides in Papyri with Hexametric Poetry (Guillaume Tedeschi)  … 159
Robert W. Daniel, Architectural Orientation in the Papyri (geneviève husson) …161
Bernard Legras, Les reclus grecs du Sarapieion de Memphis. Une enquête
sur l’hellénisme égyptien
(Dorothy J. Thompson) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

égypte chrétienne et arabe – christelijk en arabisch egypte
Note des Rédacteurs …169

Études – Artikelen
Alain Delattre, Boris Liebrenz, Tonio Sebastian Richter & Naïm Van-Thieghem, Écrire en arabe et en copte. Le cas de deux lettres bilingues … 170
Jitse h.f. Dijkstra & Jacques Van Der Vliet, Une stèle funéraire copte au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal … 189
Livres – Recensies
Peter Arzt-Grabner & Christina M. Kreinecker (hgg.), Light from the
East. Papyrologische Kommentare zum Neuen Testament. Akten des internationalen Symposions vom 3.-4. Dezember 2009 am Fach- bereich Bibelwissenschaft und Kirchengeschichte der Universität Salzburg
(guillaume tedeschi) … 197
Leslie s.b. Maccoull, Documenting Christianity in Egypt, Sixth to Fourteenth Centuries (Alain Delattre) … 200