*Please note that this course will run only if two or more students enroll.
Course Description: This course is a broad introduction to Papyrology. Ancient texts on papyrus have survived in astonishing quantities mostly from ancient Egypt. The study of papyri ranging in date from the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great (332 BC) to the Arab occupation (middle of the VII century AD) offers an extraordinary glimpse into many aspects of daily life, history and literary culture of Greco-Roman and Byzantine Egypt that are otherwise unknown. Papyrology is an essential discipline for students and scholars of the Ancient World – classicists, historians, specialists in ancient literature, linguistics, material culture etc. This course aims to introduce participants to the study of papyri written especially in Greek, documentary as well as literary. The students will acquire the main lines of the history of the discipline; they will learn how to read papyri, the methods and tools to understand their meaning, as well as the massive – but sometimes not recognized enough – contribution of papyrology to other disciplines. Through a selection of relevant exemplars, they will be provided with the skills to contextualize and analyze papyri as both texts and artefacts and will appreciate the role of papyri as privileged sources for the history of Egypt from the age of the Ptolemies to late antiquity.
DETAILS
Level: This course is intended for students with intermediate to advanced knowledge of Ancient Greek, as well as for experts in Classics and related fields.
Textbook: E.G. Turner, Greek Papyri. An Introduction, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1968 (or more recent editions) and P. Parsons, The City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish. The Lives of the Greek in Roman Egypt, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007. Instructur will also provide further materials.
Sections capped at: 5 students. If the course is sold-out, please fill out this waiting-list form.
When
Tuesdays, 10am U.S. Eastern Time
Cost
$250
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