The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt (Oxford Handbooks)

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. Cover Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Contributors List of Abbreviations and Conventions Introduction PART I: LAND AND STATE 1. Aegypto Capta: Augustus and the Annexation of Egypt 2. Between Water and Sand: Agriculture and Husbandry 3. Manufacture, Trade, and the Economy 4. Government, Taxation, and Law 5. The Roman Army in Egypt 6. The Imperial Cult in Egypt PART II: CITY, TOWN, AND CHORA 7. Alexandria 8. Settlement and Population 9. Archaeology in the Delta 10. The Archaeology of the Fayum 11. The Theban Region under the Roman Empire 12. Classical Architecture 13. City of the Dead: Tuna el-Gebel 14. The University of Michigan Excavation of Karanis (1924–1935): Images from the Kelsey Museum Photographic Archives PART III: PEOPLE 15. Status and Citizenship 16. Identity 17. The Jews in Roman Egypt: Trials and Rebellions 18. Families, Households, and Children 19. Age and Health PART IV: RELIGION 20. Religious Practice and Piety 21. Coping with a Difficult Life: Magic, Healing, and Sacred Knowledge 22. Egyptian Temples 23. Funerary Religion: The Final Phase of an Egyptian Tradition 24. Oracles 25. Isis, Osiris, and Serapis 26. Imported Cults 27. Egyptian Cult: Evidence from Temple Scriptoria and Christian Hagiographies 28. Christianity PART V: TEXTS AND LANGUAGE 29. Language Use, Literacy, and Bilingualism 30. Papyri in the Archaeological Record 31. Latin in Egypt 32. Greek Language, Education, and Literary Culture 33. Hieratic and Demotic Literature 34. Egyptian Hieroglyphs 35. Coptic PART VI: IMAGES AND OBJECTS 36. Funerary Artists: The Textual Evidence 37. Portraits 38. Terracottas 39. Pottery 40. Mummies and Mummification 41. Nilotica and the Image of Egypt PART VII: BORDERS , TRADE , AND TOURISM 42. Travel and Pilgrimage 43. The Western Oases 44. The Eastern Desert and the Red Sea Ports 45. Between Egypt and Meroitic Nubia: The Southern Frontier Region Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 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.