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Fragments of marble revetment and floor slabs as well as some broken statuary and vessels were recovered from the excavation of a Roman temple in the harbor town of Berenike on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. Petrographic analyses, including optical, cathodoluminescence, and scanning electron microscopy as well as isotopic analyses (δ13C, δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr), were conducted to determine the provenance of the marble. The aim was to reconstruct the commercial ties that led to this prized building stone being brought to Berenike. Most, if not all, of the slabs are of banded gray to white marble showing properties indicative of a Prokonnesian origin. This marble, exploited on Marmara Island (Sea of Marmara, Turkey) and extensively utilized throughout the Mediterranean, including Egypt from at least the second century A.D., might have been procured from the marble depots in Alexandria. This could have involved engaging a team of Bithynian master craftsmen for the project, presumably to embellish the main temple of the city during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian. The statuary and vessel finds are composed of white marble representing several sources. Some coarse‐grained specimens were surely extracted in Prokonnesos. For others, the source is uncertain and the likely candidates are Prokonnesos, Paros (Cyclades, Aegean Sea), and Ephesos (Aegean coast of Asia Minor). The fine‐grained varieties represented high‐quality Dokimian (Afyon region, Asia Minor) and most likely expensive Parian (lychnites type) marble. Marble from the ancient Gebel Rokham quarries in Egypt was also examined for comparison, but its properties have excluded this source in the case of the marble artifacts from Berenike analyzed in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient panel paintings on wood are, with the exception of the mesmerising mummy portraits, extremely rare. However, a small corpus of other types of Romano-Egyptian panel paintings is preserved in collections worldwide. The aim of this study is to explore the technical histories of these rare and intriguing artefacts. We present a comprehensive investigation of three Romano-Egyptian panel paintings from the collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Denmark, including their construction, materials, pigments, binding media, and dating. The panels are examined by various methods of analysis to provide much deeper insights into the materials and techniques used for their production, and to answer questions of chronology and classification. In total, this work offers a more thorough understanding of their function, significance, and original appearance, as well as insights into the art of painting during the Roman period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roman activity in Egypt's Eastern Desert fluctuated significantly, ranging from intense exploitation of its resources and desert routes that facilitated Indo-Mediterranean trade, to the Roman Empire's near total abandonment of the region. In those areas crucial to the Roman state – stone quarries, Red Sea ports, desert road stations and mining settlements – a nadir in occupation occurs near the mid-third century CE. But archaeological evidence indicates that significant reductions in activity occurred between the late second and early third centuries CE – i.e., in the Antonine and Severan Periods. The downturn was probably a result of distant geopolitical engagements, outbreaks of disease and/or shifting patterns of trade, which led to the Empire's neglect of and gradual withdrawal from the area. This article reviews the archaeology of the Eastern Desert and considers the reason(s) this once-important region fell into decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current article wishes to focus on receipts and reports from Roman Egypt in order to reconstruct the bureaucratic procedures in this region or, more precisely, the bureaucratic procedures of the Roman military logistical system, from the unit level and upwards. This examination will aid in understanding the complexity of the Roman system and the Roman mindset, while highlighting how the lack of modern technology was overcome to maintain a highly organised and vast Empire. This will strengthen and support the assumption that an office organising military supply and their records most probably existed at multiple levels; the nome, the province and Empire. Moreover, the article inspects whether the logistical system endured the many crises of the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. As there was no significant change during or after these events, this may indicate the resilience of the Roman system. It could also suggest that some of these crises were not deemed as such by the Romans, and/or that the military structure, especially its logistical-bureaucratic side, was not blamed for these military disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the limited evidence that exists for domestic abuse and violence against older individuals in the Roman world, in particular directed against parents by their offspring. Literary and legal testimony is considered, along with some discussion of skeletal evidence, and particular instances from Roman Egypt are also presented. The article considers questions of gender in this context, and also discusses the way that the evidence typically presents only one side of the picture, a side that may be distorted intentionally or mistakenly by the alleged victim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A collective burial from the early 2nd century AD, reusing the Theban Tomb 32, built in the Egyptian New Kingdom, offers a unique opportunity to learn about the practices of funerary workshops of the time. The particularity of this family group related to an archon named Soter lies in the fact that it allows the dating of their funerary assemblages in absolute and relative terms, as well as elements of their iconography. This circumstance is helpful for the study of these objects as well as other contemporary or nearby items. To illustrate the potential of this approach, we will focus on the image of the god Anubis when he accompanies the deceased to their judgement before Osiris.

The allegorical quartet of birds which prey upon the sheep in 1 Enoch 90.2 have been variously identified by early-modern and modern scholars, with no solution reaching consensus. This article proposes the "hobay" should be translated as "ibises" and accordingly represent an Egyptian people-group. I first advance this argument with the help of a parallel usage of terminology in the Greek Testament of Judah. I next confirm the utility of this identification with a brief survey of roughly contemporary primary sources (textual and material) which connect ibises and Egypt. Finally, with these cultural discourses in mind, I re-integrate the ibises into the Animal Apocalypse, suggesting that the recasting of a graceful national bird as a carnivorous monster is a deviously clever imperial critique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of our work is, then, to analyze the testimonies that show violence against taxpayers during tax collection in Roman Egypt in the 1st century AD. For this purpose, we will divide the study into two parts. In the first, we will investigate De Specialibus Legibus 2.92-95 and 3.159-163 of Philo of Alexandria in relation to the edicts of the prefects. Here we will examine especially the methods of torture along with the actions linked to government officials, such as the ἐκλογισταί. In the second, we will study the papyri and inscriptions that present requests or complaints from individuals affected by the violence of the collectors and their subordinates. This will allow us to review not only what were some of the events resulting from taxation in Roman Egypt, but also to what extent forced taxation affected the local economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gerion: Revista de Historia Antigua is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cuadernos de Prehistoria y Arqueologia is the property of Cuadernos de Prehistoria y Arqueologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Bulletin of the Center Papyrological Studies (BCPS) is the property of Ain Shams University, Faculty of Archaeology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A collective burial from the early 2nd century AD, reusing the Theban Tomb 32, built in the Egyptian New Kingdom, offers a unique opportunity to learn about the practices of funerary workshops of the time. The particularity of this family group related to an archon named Soter lies in the fact that it allows the dating of their funerary assemblages in absolute and relative terms, as well as elements of their iconography. This circumstance is helpful for the study of these objects as well as other contemporary or nearby items. To illustrate the potential of this approach, we will focus on the image of the god Anubis when he accompanies the deceased to their judgement before Osiris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the aims and impact of Augustan social legislation from the perspective of documentary evidence from Roman Egypt. The extensive presence of the laws in an epitome of an Augustan rulebook for a fiscal procurator in Egypt (the so-called Gnomon of the Idios Logos, BGU V 1210, P. Oxy. XLII 3014), where their application extends to citizens of Greek cities, speaks for the Augustan marriage and manumission laws being part of a broader vision of social order in the Roman empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Harvard Art Museums’ collection includes six Egyptian funerary portraits of the Roman period. These portraits are all that remains of the funerary equipment of individuals whose bodies were carefully prepared for burial and the afterlife. One example, depicting a man, is particularly complicated, broken into multiple fragments which have been glued down onto a board. The in-depth study of the portrait used a combination of non-invasive techniques, including X-radiography, infrared-, ultraviolet- and visible-induced luminescence imaging, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to identify and locate particular pigments, binders and other artist materials, without needing to take a sample. Targeted sampling, informed by the imaging process, was then undertaken for additional analysis through the use of cross-sections, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, radiocarbon dating, and lead isotope ratio analysis. This study identified a core group of three fragments in the center of the portrait that comprise much of the face and neck, tunic, and part of the hair. The remaining 15 fragments contain most of the background, parts of the hair, and the proper left eye and tunic, and are distinct from the central group of fragments. Analysis suggests these fragments were reused from other ancient funerary portraits, and whilst it was not possible to connect any of these added fragments to one another, a potential workshop connection between the central fragments and three added fragments can be suggested based on a study of the composition of the lead white pigment, and similarities in painting technique.

The ancient city of Alexandria was often referred to as Alexandria ad Aegyptum in Roman documentary, epigraphic and literary sources; this phrase was translated in Greek as ἡ Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ πρὸς Αἰγύπτῳ. The grammatical phrasing implies that Alexandria was seen as being 'near' or 'next to' Egypt, not 'in' Egypt. This observation has given rise to the scholarly view that Alexandria was not part of Egypt. In this article the function of the designation ad Aegyptum and of similar designations within literary, papyrological and epigraphic sources ranging from 300 b.c.e. to 640 c.e. will be closely examined. This article argues that the expression can be seen as reflecting both the distinction and the close connection between Alexandria and Egypt on the basis of geographical, political and socio-cultural factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Smaragdos region, currently in the Wadi Gemal National Park (Eastern Desert, Egypt) was well known in antiquity for the emeralds that could be found there. The exploitation of emerald mines, especially in the Roman period, led to the creation of an important network of settlements linked to the procurement and commercial distribution of this semiprecious stone, which was considered highly valuable in ancient times. The overview of the emerald trade in Roman antiquity presented in this paper will focus on Sikait, the most important and best known of the mining settlements in the Eastern Desert.

In 2012, the international team of the archaeological expedition at Amheida, under the primary sponsorship of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW, New York University), found a large amount of pristine mosaic tesserae in the Roman polis of Trimithis, the modern Amheida (Dakhla Oasis, Upper Egypt). The tesserae were recovered in a room that was part of a bath complex that was under renovation when it was suddenly abandoned at the end of the 4th century AD. The tesserae, more than 20,400 in number, were made of limestone, sandstone and, in a very small percentage, of recycled pottery, showing four different colours: white, yellow, dark grey/black and dark red. They must be considered as the first evidence for a mosaic in the Egyptian oases. The aims of this paper are to present the finding context, the tesserae and their manufacturing and, finally, to display parallels with comparable discoveries.

This article challenges the consensus that the Flavians carried out major reforms of imperial properties by creating a separate department, the ousiakos logos, headed by a procurator usiacus, to manage these lands, and that this situation remained unchanged until Diocletian. The available evidence rather points to a reorganization under Hadrian, which was the culmination of a gradual institutionalization of ousiac land in the previous decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional view of inflation in the Roman world, based on evidence from Roman Egypt, is that prices were steady from the middle of the first century AD until around AD 274, other than a doubling of prices between AD 160 and 190. By a quantitative treatment of the data for all available prices, and indicators of prices, this paper shows that this picture is broadly correct for wheat, but that prices for other goods increased throughout the period from AD 160 to 270. This pattern suggests that there were two co-existing market sectors. One for wheat, where prices appear to have been impacted by state action, and another where other commodities were left to find their own market level within a relatively free market.

The crucial roles played by young people in the lives of ancient urban and civic spaces has been underestimated in discussions of urban life. Through our case study in Roman Egypt, we scrutinize expectations placed on young people, the specific roles they would have taken in these environments, and their agency in shaping, and responding to, the expectations and demands placed on them by their physical and social environments. The discussion addresses three major themes: young people's visibility and accessibility within the city scape; expectations placed on young people and their agency in responding to them; and the geographical and practical limits of movement for young people. The research is based on papyri from the Roman Egyptian metropolis of Oxyrhynchos and its administrative area, from late first century BCE to sixth century CE, and a resulting database of over 700 cases mentioning children and young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of Latin in the multilingual society of Roman Egypt was never more than marginal. Yet, as a language of the ruling power, the Roman Empire, Latin enjoyed to some extent a privileged status. It was generally more widely applied in the army, as well as on some official occasions, and in the field of law. Less expectably, various Latin inscriptions on stone had religious contents or were found in sacred spaces and contexts. Such texts included honorary and votive inscriptions, visitors' graffiti, and funerary inscriptions. All three groups are surveyed and evaluated focusing especially on their actual relation to the religious sphere and social background, noting both continuity and changes of existing practices and traditions. Such analysis of the inscriptions allows to draw conclusions not only regarding the use of Latin in religious matters in Egypt but also reveal some aspects of the use of Latin in Egypt in general and the role of Roman culture in the Egyptian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animals were as inextricable a part as they were indicative of the system of common ancient Egyptian beliefs. Their special role was manifested in a rich iconography and in multitudes of animal mummies deposited in the major sacral complexes. Seen in this light, the cemetery of small animals of 1st–2nd century AD date, excavated since 2011 in the Red Sea port town of Berenike, comes across as entirely unique, notwithstanding the spiritual aspects of cats, dogs and monkeys. Contrary to Egyptian animal burials of all periods associated with human ones, the Berenike inhumations were not intended as afterlife companions of their last owners; neither were they ever mummified. Recent results of research present the variety of species kept in the households and insight into their behaviour. Pathological changes on one of the dog skeletons suggest a deadly condition, that is, osteosarcoma. The Berenike data also shed new light on the distribution of the cat beyond Egypt and a rising preference for keeping the animal as a pet in Europe and the Middle East.

Copyright of Keria is the property of Keria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archivio Giuridico is the property of Mucchi Editore and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A clay seal from the collection of the late professor Dan Barag bears an inscription The Boule of Baitolethepha. The village of Baitolethepha (Beit-Nattif/Pella) was the administrative center of a Toparchy in Judea. This seal seems to prove that central toparchy villages, at least in Roman period Judea, had local councils called boulai and that this type of institution was not exclusive to poleis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mare Nostrum is the property of Revista Mare Nostrum and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Egypt of the Hellenistic and Roman periods remains the most thoroughly documented multilingual society in the ancient world, because of the wealth of texts preserved on papyrus in Egyptian, Greek, Latin and other languages. This makes the scarcity of interpreters in the papyrological record all the more curious. This study reviews all instances in the papyri of individuals referred to as hermēneus in Greek, or references to the process of translation/interpreting. It discusses the terminological ambiguity of hermēneus, which can also mean a commercial mediator; the position of language mediators in legal cases in Egyptian, Greek and Latin; the role of gender in language mediation; and concludes with a survey of interpreting in Egyptian monastic communities in Late Antiquity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]