The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt (Oxford Handbooks)

Roman Egypt is a critical area of interdisciplinary research, which has steadily expanded since the 1970s and continues to grow. Egypt played a pivotal role in the Roman empire, not only in terms of political, economic, and military strategies, but also as part of an intricate cultural discourse involving themes that resonate today — east and west, old world and new, acculturation and shifting identities, patterns of language use and religious belief, and the management of agriculture and trade. Roman Egypt was a literal and figurative crossroads shaped by the movement of people, goods, and ideas, and framed by permeable boundaries of self and space. This publication is unique in drawing together many different strands of research on Roman Egypt, in order to suggest both the state of knowledge in the field and the possibilities for collaborative, synthetic, and interpretive research. Arranged in seven thematic sections, each of which includes articles from a variety of disciplinary vantage points and multiple sources of information, it offers new perspectives from both established and younger scholars, featuring individual issue topics, themes, and intellectual juxtapositions. MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Cover 1 Contents 6 List of Figures 10 List of Tables 16 List of Contributors 17 List of Abbreviations and Conventions 20 Introduction 24 PART I: LAND AND STATE 32 1. Aegypto Capta: Augustus and the Annexation of Egypt 34 2. Between Water and Sand: Agriculture and Husbandry 45 3. Manufacture, Trade, and the Economy 61 4. Government, Taxation, and Law 79 5. The Roman Army in Egypt 91 6. The Imperial Cult in Egypt 106 PART II: CITY, TOWN, AND CHORA 124 7. Alexandria 126 8. Settlement and Population 145 9. Archaeology in the Delta 159 10. The Archaeology of the Fayum 175 11. The Theban Region under the Roman Empire 194 12. Classical Architecture 212 13. City of the Dead: Tuna el-Gebel 228 14. The University of Michigan Excavation of Karanis (1924–1935): Images from the Kelsey Museum Photographic Archives 246 PART III: PEOPLE 268 15. Status and Citizenship 270 16. Identity 283 17. The Jews in Roman Egypt: Trials and Rebellions 300 18. Families, Households, and Children 311 19. Age and Health 328 PART IV: RELIGION 340 20. Religious Practice and Piety 342 21. Coping with a Difficult Life: Magic, Healing, and Sacred Knowledge 360 22. Egyptian Temples 385 23. Funerary Religion: The Final Phase of an Egyptian Tradition 406 24. Oracles 421 25. Isis, Osiris, and Serapis 442 26. Imported Cults 459 27. Egyptian Cult: Evidence from Temple Scriptoria and Christian Hagiographies 480 28. Christianity 497 PART V: TEXTS AND LANGUAGE 514 29. Language Use, Literacy, and Bilingualism 516 30. Papyri in the Archaeological Record 530 31. Latin in Egypt 539 32. Greek Language, Education, and Literary Culture 549 33. Hieratic and Demotic Literature 566 34. Egyptian Hieroglyphs 586 35. Coptic 604 PART VI: IMAGES AND OBJECTS 618 36. Funerary Artists: The Textual Evidence 620 37. Portraits 636 38. Terracottas 653 39. Pottery 671 40. Mummies and Mummification 687 41. Nilotica and the Image of Egypt 707 PART VII: BORDERS , TRADE , AND TOURISM 722 42. Travel and Pilgrimage 724 43. The Western Oases 740 44. The Eastern Desert and the Red Sea Ports 759 45. Between Egypt and Meroitic Nubia: The Southern Frontier Region 772 Index 786 A 786 B 789 C 789 D 791 E 793 F 794 G 795 H 796 I 797 J 798 K 799 L 800 M 801 N 803 O 804 P 804 Q 807 R 807 S 808 T 810 U 813 V 813 W 813 X 814 Y 814 Z 814 Roman Egypt is a critical area of interdisciplinary research, which has steadily expanded since the 1970s and continues to grow. Egypt played a pivotal role in the Roman empire, not only in terms of political, economic, and military strategies, but also as part of an intricate cultural discourse involving themes that resonate today -- east and west, old world and new, acculturation and shifting identities, patterns of language use and religious belief, and the management of agriculture and trade. Roman Egypt was a literal and figurative crossroads shaped by the movement of people, goods, and ideas, and framed by permeable boundaries of self and space. This Handbook is unique in drawing together many different strands of research on Roman Egypt, in order to suggest both the state of knowledge in the field and the possibilities for collaborative, synthetic, and interpretive research. Arranged in seven thematic sections, each of which includes essays from a variety of disciplinary vantage points and multiple sources of information, it offers new perspectives from both established and younger scholars, featuring individual essay topics, themes, and intellectual juxtapositions. This handbook, arranged in seven thematic sections, is unique in drawing together many different strands of research on Roman Egypt, in order to suggest both the state of knowledge in the field and the possibilities for collaborative, synthetic, and interpretive research.