Since its first publication in 1995, Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History has proved to be an invaluable resource for students of the ancient world looking to integrate papyrological evidence into their research. In the quarter century since its publication, changes in the research environment have affected papyrology like other fields. Although the core philological methods of the field remain in place, the field has increasingly embraced languages other than Greek and Latin, with considerable impact on the Hellenistic and Late Antique periods. Digital tools have increased the ease and speed of access, with profound effects on research choices, and digital imaging and materiality studies have brought questions about the physical form of written materials to the fore.
In this fully revised new edition, Bagnall adds to the previous analysis a portrait of how the use of papyri for historical research has developed during recent decades. Updated with the latest research and insights from the author, the volume guides historians in how to use these scattered and often badly damaged documents, and to interpret them in order to create a full and diverse picture of ancient society and culture.
This second edition of Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History continues to offer students and researchers of the ancient world a critical resource in navigating how to use these ancient texts in their research.
List of figures
Preface to the second edition
Preface to the first edition
Plates
Introduction: history and papyri
1 The culture of papyrus
2 Ancient and modern choices in documentation
Languages and scripts
Who wrote what
Survival of papyri
Restoring and using damaged papyri
3 Particular and general
Understanding individual documents
Archives and dossiers
Museum archaeology
Synthesizing dispersed texts
Joining papyri to other evidence
4 Time and place
Stratifying material
A broader Mediterranean context
Province and empire
The chronological axis
5 Quantification
Patterns of land ownership
Textile production
Wine production
Demography
Religious conversion
Mathematics and networks
6 Asking questions
Other ancient texts
Anthropology and the papyri
Post-colonial studies and Ptolemaic Egypt
Gender studies and the papyri
Papyri and the history of emotions
New Institutional Economics
7 The digital revolution
Failing cheaply
The impact of digital imaging
Digital resources and onomastics
8 Continuity and renewal
The durability of philology
The challenge of a larger context
Limits and prospects
Works cited in the text and notes
General bibliography
Index of subjects
Index of texts cited
Biography
Roger S. Bagnall is Jay Professor of Greek and Latin and Professor of History, emeritus, at Columbia University, USA, and Professor of Ancient History and Leon Levy Director, emeritus, at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, USA. His other publications include Egypt in Late Antiquity (1993), The Demography of Roman Egypt (1994), and Everyday Writing in the Graeco-Roman East (2011).
