Singles in Antiquity Conference, Rome, Academia Belgica, 28-30 May, 2015

Singles in Antiquity Rome, Academia Belgica, 28-30 May, 2015

Singleness is not only represented as a new and rapidly increasing lifestyle in the present days. It also became a fashionable field of research of social history. In a series of sessions of the European Social Science History Conference (Glasgow, 2012) questions were raised concerning the structural and cultural particularities of 'single life' in the cities. A conference at the University of Antwerp (Singles in the Cities of North-West Europe, c. 1000-2000) in March 2013 further expanded upon the insights from the Glasgow-conference.
In this new field of research, the silence of ancient historians is striking. This may be partly explained by the lack of demographical data: there are virtually no statistics or censuses enabling to show how many men or women lived single in the towns of the Roman Empire. But far more problematic is the definition of singleness. In a society which did not yet know the Christian concept of marriage, in an environment where both the contracting of a marriage and divorce were fast and easy, the lines between married and unmarried were somehow vague. This may explain why there is not a proper or much used Latin or Ancient Greek word to denote the status of a bachelor or a spinster. We might even raise the question whether singleness for the ancient period could possible be defined as being unmarried. But even without the criterium of marriage, other approaches towards singleness in Antiquity are possible.
Since this is the first conference ever on the theme, aiming at a book volume which will set the path for further research, both a chronological and thematic scope will be used to answer a variety of fundamental questions. The questions will be framed within a comparative perspective - taking attention to the way historians of other periods deal with the question.
(1) The possibility of some demographic insight into singleness - and the way it was distributed (widows, unmarried, divorced, orphan). Difference between urban and rural environment.
(2) Gendered aspects of the issue.
(3) Social and economic drawbacks or incentives for single persons.
(4) Social networks and the possibility of a subculture of singles.
(5) Juridic consequences of singleness.
(6) Funerary commemoration and representation of singleness.
(7) The impact of Christianity.
Organisation
Christian Laes, University of Antwerp, Free University of Brussels
Sabine Huebner, University of Basel
Dates, Location
28-30th May 2015,
Academia Belgica in Rome.
Small conference, maximum two days.
Programme
Thursday
15:30-16:00 Welcome; Coffee
16:00-16:30 What’s in a Single? Roman Antiquity and a Comparative World Approach (Christian Laes)
Panel I: Demographic, Archaeological, and Socio-Economic Approaches
Chair: Christian Laes
16:30 – 17:00 The Demographic Background for Singles: Roman Egypt and Beyond (Sabine Huebner)
17:00 – 17:30  Looking for Singles in the Archaeological Record (Anna Boozer)
17:30-18:00 Singleness as Business Strategy? Economic Incentives or Drawbacks of Living Alone (Wim Broekaert)
18:00 – 18:30 Discussion
18:30-19:30 Reception
Friday
Panel II: Singles in Judaism, Chair: Ville Vuolanto
9:30-10:00 Ranon Katzoff „Age at Marriage of Jewish Girls in Late Antiquity and the Rabbinic Rejection of Singleness“
10:00-10:30 John Martens „Was Jesus Single?“
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-11:30 Kevin Funderburk „Contesting the Temple: Nazirite vows and primitive Christian celibacy“
11:30-12:00 Discussion
12:00-14:00 Lunch
Panel III: Being Single in the Roman world
Chair: Sabine Huebner
14:00– 14:30 Penalizing celibacy? A Socio-cultural approach to Augustus’ marriage legislation (Judith Evans Grubbs)
14:30-15:00  Living “Single” by Catullus and Cicero (Harri Kiiskinen)
15:00-15:30 Detecting Roman Ideas on Female Singleness: a Literary perspective (Elina Pyy)
15:30-16:00 Coffee break
16:00-16:30 Single Commemoration in Latin Epigraphy (Hanne Sigismund Nielsen)
16:30-17:00 Single as a Lena. The Depiction of Procuresses in Roman Augustan Literature (Mina Petrova Petrova)
17:00-17:30 Single Women and Slaves in Roman Antiquity (Ilse Mueller)
17:30-18:00 Discussion
Saturday
Panel IV: Late antique Christianity: the rise of the ideal of being single
Chair: John Martens
9:00-9:30 Single Commemoration in Christian inscriptions from Rome (Thomas Goessens)
9:30-10:00 Three Different Ways of Life: Being Single in the Fourth Century CE (Raffaela Cribiore)
10:00-10:30 Singleness as a Continuity Strategy. Ascetics Between the Earthly and Heavenly Family (Ville Vuolanto)
10:30-11:00 Augustine, “Philosophical Retirement” and the Singles Life (Geoff Nathan)
11:00-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-12:00 Singles in Early Byzantine Literature (Stephanos Efthymiadis)
12:00-12:30 “Listen to my mistreatment”: Coptic evidence for the difficulties faced by single women in Late Antique and early Islamic Egypt  (Jennifer Cromwell)
12:30-13:00 Discussion
13:00-14:30 Lunch
Panel V: Comparative voices; Chair: Christian Laes and Sabine Huebner
14:30-15:00 Singles and Celibacy in Early Islam (Mohammed Hocine Benkheira)
15:00-15:30 Singleness in the Early Modern Period: How Do Historians Cope with It? (Julie De Groot)
15:30-16:00 Singleness in the Libri Animarum (19th Century Italy) (Matteo Manfredini)
15:30-16:00 Final Discussion
20:00 Conference Dinner

L. Blumell, T. Waymant, Christian Oxyrhynchus Texts, Documents, and Sources

Forthcoming in August: 
Christian Oxyrhynchus
Texts, Documents, and Sources
Edited by Lincoln H. Blumell and Thomas A. Wayment
Baylor University Press
Hardback, 778 pages
$89.95
Published: 15th August 2015
ISBN: 9781602585393
Format: 9in x 6in

Blumell and Wayment present a thorough compendium of all published papyri, parchments, and patristic sources that relate to Christianity at Oxyrhynchus before the fifth century CE. Christian Oxyrhynchus provides new and expanded editions of Christian literary and documentary texts that include updated readings, English translations––some of which represent the first English translation of a text––and comprehensive notes.

The volume features New Testament texts carefully collated against other textual witnesses and a succinct introduction for each Oxyrhynchus text that provides information about the date of the papyrus, its unique characteristics, and textual variants. Documentary texts are grouped both by genre and date, giving readers access to the Decian Libelli, references to Christians in third- and fourth-century texts, and letters written by Christians. A compelling resource for researchers, teachers, and students, Christian Oxyrhynchus enables broad access to these crucial primary documents beyond specialists in papyrology, Greek, Latin, and Coptic.

“Christian Oxyrhynchus is a marvelous resource for scholars and students alike. The volume collects not only the fragments of texts that eventually became part of the ‘New Testament’ but also a wealth of extracanonical Christian texts, hymns, prayers, tractates, and amulets that constituted the library of knowledge that Oxyrhynchite Christians had in the second to the fourth centuries C.E. Taken together, these form a rich dossier, illustrating the complexion and contours of Christianity at this important Egyptian city.”

—John S. Kloppenborg, F.R.S.C., Chair and Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto

"This important new collection forms an indispensable aid to research on early Christian Egypt, and will serve as the basis for the next generation of work on Christianity in Oxyrhynchus".

—Malcolm Choat, Associate Professor, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University

"A treasure trove! This book will serve as a rich resource both for teaching and for original research on a formative period in the history of early Christianity with first hand documents from a known provenance. I am sure it will stimulate and generate new research on this important site and its Christian population. I recommend it warmly.”

—AnneMarie Luijendijk, Chair and Professor, Department of Religion, Princeton University

“For the first time ever, Lincoln Blumell and Thomas Wayment provide a collection of literary and documentary witnesses to early Christianity from a late ancient town in Upper Egypt. Students and scholars alike will profit from the meticulous and scrutinizing work of collecting this mass of papyri from the second to the fourth century.”

—Thomas J. Kraus, University of Zurich, Switzerland

P. Euphrates images at the Sorbonne

Jean Gascou writes on Papy-L:

An index of the so-called Euphrates Papyri is now available at the Institut de Papyrologie de la Sorbonne website, together with  digital images of the texts.
This document (a "working paper") has been compiled by Damien Labadie. It is a first step towards the gathering of the whole dossier into a corpus.

Some of these texts on papyrus and leather from Middle Euphrates are published in:
J. Gascou-D. Feissel, Documents d'archives romains inédits du Moyen Euphrate (IIIe s. ap. J.-C.), CRAI 113.3, 1989, 535-561 (=Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 133e année, N. 3, 1989),
J. Gascou-D. Feissel, Documents d'archives romains inédits du Moyen Euphrate (IIIe s. après J-C) [I. Les pétitions (T. Euphr. 1 à 5)] , Journal des Savants 1995, 65-119,
J. Gascou-D. Feissel-J.Teixidor, Documents d'archives romains inédits du Moyen Euphrate (IIIe siècle après J-C) [II. Les actes de vente- achat (P. Euphr. 6 À 10) ],  Journal des Savants 1997, 3-57. 

TREDICESIMO SEMINARIO PAPIROLOGICO FIORENTINO (7-15 settembre 2015)

Istituto Papirologico Girolamo Vitelli

Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli» (Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze) – Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana – Accademia Fiorentina di Papirologia e di Studi sul Mondo Antico

TREDICESIMO SEMINARIO PAPIROLOGICO FIORENTINO

Papiri inediti delle collezioni fiorentine
Il seminario si terrà a Firenze dal 7 al 15 settembre 2015, presso l’Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli» (Borgo degli Albizi 12), e sarà coordinato dai proff. Guido Bastianini (Università di Firenze), Gabriella Messeri (Università di Napoli «Federico II») e Rosario Pintaudi (Università di Messina), con la collaborazione dei drr. Antonio López García, Francesca Maltomini, Giovanna Menci, Simona Russo e Marco Stroppa.

Il lavoro dei partecipanti si svolgerà su testi inediti delle collezioni fiorentine.
I partecipanti saranno impegnati nel restauro dei papiri e saranno loro fornite le necessarie istruzioni tecniche per operare sul materiale. Inoltre, i partecipanti affronteranno lo studio diretto degli originali: saranno fornite le nozioni fondamentali sulla metodologia della trascrizione e sulle varie tipologie dei testi che si recuperano dai papiri, nonché nozioni di inquadramento storico generale. I partecipanti potranno altresì visitare la collezione di materiali archeologici custoditi presso l’Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli».

Il seminario è riservato a giovani in possesso di Laurea triennale o magistrale, in ambito letterario o storico, con percorsi di studio di indirizzo classico (filologico o storico-antico). Sono ammessi anche studenti stranieri, con analoghi requisiti. Costituirà titolo preferenziale per l’ammissione al seminario l’avere svolto una tesi in Papirologia; non verranno prese in considerazione le domande di coloro che abbiano precedentemente partecipato a più di un’altra iniziativa analoga.
Al termine del seminario, sarà rilasciato un attestato di frequenza a coloro che abbiano seguito tutte le fasi dei lavori.

Il numero dei partecipanti è limitato a 12.
La quota di iscrizione è fissata in 250 euro.

Le domande di iscrizione devono pervenire entro il 26 giugno 2015 e devono essere indirizzate al prof. Guido Bastianini presso l’Istituto Papirologico «G. Vitelli», Borgo degli Albizi 12, I-50122 Firenze. Si prega di indicare sulla busta: “Tredicesimo Seminario Papirologico Fiorentino”. Alla domanda, in carta semplice, devono essere acclusi il curriculum vitae e una lettera di presentazione rilasciata da un docente universitario.

La quota di iscrizione dovrà essere versata secondo le modalità che saranno indicate nella lettera con cui sarà comunicato che la domanda di iscrizione è stata accettata.
I richiedenti saranno informati sull’esito della loro domanda entro il 15 luglio 2015.
I coordinatori del Seminario

Guido Bastianini, Gabriella Messeri, Rosario Pintaudi

Documentary on looting in Egypt: HBO VICE Season 3, 8

Some screen shots from the doc.