Late Antique Egypt Research Articles

‘In Defiance of his Cloth’: Monastic (Im)Piety in Late Antique Egypt

Hagiographical writing promotes a vision of Egyptian monasticism in which pious ascetic figures are isolated from the world. Peter Brown highlighted the role of the holy man as patron, but nonetheless reinforced a traditional view of Egyptian monasticism based on his readings of works such as the sixth-century Aphothegmata Patrum. Surviving monastic correspondence, in contrast, demonstrates that there was a highly individualized approach to the monastic vocation. In this article, I turn to documentary material to consider the complexities of the early development of the movement. As a case study, I use the Greek and Coptic correspondence of a fourth-century monk called Apa John. My conclusion is that activities and behaviours described in the texts do not always accord with any known typology or ideal, but they are invaluable for exploring aspects of the early monastic impulse and the role played by the movement in wider society.

Building women's social capital in Late Antique Egypt: business owners and civic administrators

Women as a social category have been the subject of numerous recent studies considering their lived experience in the Late Antique and Byzantine Mediterranean. However, their representation in the narrative sources continues to shape modern reconstructions of women's agency within their social and economic contexts, often with unsatisfactory results. Building on the twentieth-century sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's model of social capital, this article will use the documentary papyri from Egypt to suggest a paradigm in which the agency of individual women can be viewed and incorporated into micro-historical narratives of the patriarchal society of Late Antiquity.

MOvEIT: a Proof of Concept of a Road Graph for Late Antique Egypt

In the context of the fruitful collaboration between PAThs, an ERC-funded project, and LAD, the Laboratory for Digital Archaeology at Sapienza University of Rome, an experimental attempt to link between them places being described by the Archaeological Atlas of Coptic Literature developed into a road graph for Late Antique Egypt.Desktop GIS software has been used to build and update the graph by following different sources and methodologies, and the resulting data have been published online as open access (https://paths-erc.eu/moveit/ ). A single-page application was built and is available to provide a graphical user interface to access the data and use the graph to calculate directions from one place to another. The project is opened and shared with the broad community of scholars for further development.

Who Wrote Ritual Formularies from Egypt? A Study of P.Lond. I 121 (= PGM VII) and Its Possible Relationship with Scholarly Patronage in Late Antiquity

The “Greek” and “Egyptian” “magical papyri” are a group of late Hellenistic to late antique ritual formularies, amulets, and other activated texts, most of which were written in Greek and found in Egypt. They have been traditionally interpreted as the grimoires of magicians until recently. Following the work of David Frankfurter, it is now often assumed that most recipes were created by priests in Roman Egypt in a bid to attract the patronage of Greek-educated patrons after Egyptian temple cults collapsed in the third century CE. However, recent studies on temples in Roman Egypt demonstrate that there is no compelling evidence attesting to an early decline of Egyptian temples. Empire-wide increase and decline in economic and literary activities provide a more accurate context for the appearance and disappearance of Greek ritual recipe books in late antique Egypt. The ritual formulary known as P.Lond. I 121 (= PGM 7) is a good candidate for this approach as it suggests the aptitudes and interests manifested by Greek-educated client scholars.

Children and Family in Late Antique Egyptian Monasticism by Caroline T. Schroeder

Reviewed by: Children and Family in Late Antique Egyptian Monasticism by Caroline T. Schroeder Arietta Papaconstantinou Children and Family in Late Antique Egyptian Monasticism Caroline T. Schroeder Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. xiii + 255. ISBN 9781107156876 When in 2006 Alice-Mary Talbot and I organized a conference on late antique and Byzantine childhood at Dumbarton Oaks, we felt we were venturing into new territory. In the fifteen years following that conference, the field has seen a spectacular rise in interest for all aspects of childhood in the broader late antique and Byzantine world. Caroline Schroeder's book is one of the most sophisticated products of this surge, both in its overall approach to the subject and in its nuanced and balanced discussions. Schroeder tackles a favorite of research on medieval childhood: the uneasy relationship between children and monasteries. This has not yet been studied comprehensively for the eastern Mediterranean, and this book, focused more specifically on late antique Egypt, makes an important first step in that direction. After an introduction defining the concept of "child" as used in the book and discussing the broader issue of how cultural norms can affect the way we study the subject, the first section, "Finding children," surveys a very broad array of sources, from monastic to visual to documentary (Chapter 1: "Documenting the Undocumented: Children in the Earliest Egyptian Monasteries"), and discusses the vocabulary of childhood and its ambiguities (Chapter 2: "The Language of Childhood"). Paradoxically, however, the second chapter undermines the first: the constant uncertainty regarding what exactly is being referred to by the various possible words for "child" does not support the argument that children's presence in monasteries was common and important. Neither does it invalidate it, of course, but the interpretation of most of the texts used is far from univocal. The second section, "Representations," is on much firmer ground, because it discusses literary themes about children. Each of the three chapters is based on a previously published article, and despite being self-standing studies, they combine to offer an excellent analysis of the thought-world of monastic writers and the literary uses to which they put children. Chapter 3, "Homoeroticism, Children, and the Making of Monks" (based on a 2009 publication, "Queer Eye for the Ascetic Guy? Homoeroticism, Children, and the Making of Monks in Late Antique Egypt" in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion 77: 333–47), treats the vexed issue of the sexualization of young boys in male monasteries. The undeniable grim reality underlying monastic literary [End Page 249] obsessions about young boys is difficult to access through texts that primarily express the sexual anxieties of monks. For the monks, they probably functioned similarly to texts about eunuchs or imaginary disguised women in their midst. Chapter 4, "Child sacrifice: from familial renunciation to Jephthah's lost daughter" (originally from 2012, "Child Sacrifice in Egyptian Monastic Culture: From Familial Renunciation to Jephthah's Lost Daughter" in the Journal of Early Christian Studies 20: 269–302), brings together topics as disparate as the killing of children and the renunciation of family affection. Schroeder shows how these hang together in a web of holy hierarchies, where obedience to God—and the line of authority figures representing him—trumps any bond within the biological family. She explores the complex intertextual relations between monastic stories and biblical models and the symbolic power of a practice that went against cultural norms. Biblical models like Jephtah and Abraham undeniably underlie such stories, but sacrificing one's child for a superior cause was also a Homeric theme and certainly familiar to monks with a Greek education. The final chapter in this section, chapter 5: "Monastic Family Values: The Healing of Children" (rooted in a 2011 publication, "Monastic Family Values: The Healing of Children in Late Antique Egypt" in Coptica 10: 21–28), discusses healing in both the literal and the symbolic sense—in other words, both biological and spiritual cures. Schroeder argues that the monastery thus took on the role of the household by providing care and moral education to the children. Although the monks' healing powers were ascribed to faith and asceticism, it seems inmates sometimes had medical expertise...

‘Tears flowed from his eyes unceasingly’: weeping and total devotion in Egypt in late antiquity

ABSTRACT The article discusses the practice of weeping in Pachomian monasticism as a performance of absolute devotion. Theories about radical religion and approaches to emotions are used as a theoretical lens. Pachomian sources show a religious society in the making. Its emotional practices, including weeping, reflect a form of total devotion toward the divine, the monastic father, and the religious group. The article looks into how weeping was performed, what its scales were, in which ways it reflected religious excellence, and what sort of emotional regime it supported. Weeping interacted with a hierarchical organization and an authoritarian leadership intent on control. Leadership issues were set in a context of intense weeping, founded on the submission of the monastic son to the monastic father and on the son's total devotion to the monastic father and the divine. In the monastic story world, weeping and tears are strong textual signals and a pull factor in radical religion.

:A Social Archaeology of Roman and Late Antique Egypt: Artefacts of Everyday Life

:<i>A Social Archaeology of Roman and Late Antique Egypt: Artefacts of Everyday Life</i>

Terracotta Female Figurines from the Monastery of Manqabad (Asyut, Egypt)

The project of study and classification of the pottery assemblage from the monastery of Manqabad (Asyut) started in 2014, and has been focused in its first phase on the documentation of the items currently kept in the warehouse at el-Ashmunein (Egypt). So far, 150 out of 245 ceramic specimens have been analysed and included in a digital database, following the data recorded by the inventories of the el-Minya Inspectorate. During the last season (2019), some interesting terracotta figurines representing female figures and small animals have been object of a more in-depth study, in order to clear their function and meaning within the complex Christian rituals of Late Antique Egypt.

“The Angel of the Topos Shall Bless You”: Preliminary Report on the Cult of the Altar-Angels in Late Antique Egypt

Abstract This article presents a first look at some of the key sources and hypotheses of ongoing research on a significant yet ill-studied figure in late antique Egyptian-Christian piety: The “Angel of the Altar,” or “of the Topos,” and later “of the Sacrifice” as he is still invoked in the Coptic liturgy today. Since the 4th century, church canons and literary works aiming to instill fear of the altar in monks and clerics warn of the angel guarding it, who can only be seen by monastic and clerical leaders in visions which become a common feature of post-Chalcedonian Coptic homiletics. This angel figure is identified with God’s destructive power defending the ark/altar/temple in the Old Testament. The “Angel of the Altar” also has the crucial liturgical function of lifting the Eucharistic offering to God. He is even considered the true dispenser or withholder of the Eucharist, overshadowing and potentially nullifying the actions of the priest. Originally an impersonal figure, he is sometimes identified with the specific archangel assigned to the church in question, such as Michael or Raphael. In a further step, it seems that some monastic communities who built their corporate identities on the fame of their respective patron saint began to identify the latter with the “Angel of the Altar,” appropriating the concept for the cult of saints. Documentary papyri show how monastic leaders invoked the Angel as superhuman punisher and blesser in the economic interest of the monastery. It is probably in this context that the variant “Angel of the Topos” emerged, amounting to what seems to be the only technical term for “patron saint of a place” in Coptic.

Review: The Rise of Coptic: Egyptian versus Greek in Late Antiquity, by Jean-Luc Fournet

Review: <i>The Rise of Coptic: Egyptian versus Greek in Late Antiquity</i>, by Jean-Luc Fournet

In the Melting Pot: Cultural Mixture and the Presentation of Alchemical Knowledge in the Letter from Isis to Horus

This article investigates how the Letter from Isis to Horus (first-fourth century CE) explores the literary potentialities allowed by the complex cultural backdrop one finds in late antique Egypt. By looking into how this example of alchemical writing both engages with and departs from shared motifs of Hermetism, the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri, and 1 Enoch, it demonstrates how the Letter uses literary artifice in a way that gives alchemical knowledge a specific and distinct voice. It also argues that the cultural mixture of Hermetism, magic, and Scripture represented in the Letter reflects the alchemical procedure of mixing frequently mentioned in the text.

Hamlet of ʽAin el-Gedida in Dakhla Oasis

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; This article discusses archaeological and documentary evidence from the late Roman settlement of ʽAin el-Gedida (located in the Dakhla Oasis of Upper Egypt), with a particular focus on the site’s likely identification as an epoikion, i.e., a small rural center associated with the management of a large agricultural estate. ʽAin el-Gedida was first excavated by an Egyptian mission in 1993–1995 and immediately raised interest among scholars working in the oasis, with the site being preliminarily identified either as a rural village or a monastic settlement. More recent excavations and study seasons, conducted (from 2006 to 2010) by a Columbia University (then New York University) mission directed by Roger Bagnall, has allowed investigators to gather a substantial amount of new data. This evidence, published in 2018 and more recently in 2020, supports the likely identification of ʽAin el-Gedida as an epoikion over other types of settlements. In this article, the data from ʽAin el-Gedida are discussed in light of what is known from documentary sources about epoikia, as well as modern Egyptian ezab. Worthy of note is that not many other agricultural hamlets of a comparable size have been extensively excavated and published thus far. It is also remarkable that, while written evidence on epoikia abounds, the site of ʽAin el-Gedida may provide the first available archaeological evidence for this type of settlement; therefore, it may offer new and useful data on the layout and organization of epoikia in late antique Egypt.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

The Cross in the Visual Culture of Late Antique Egypt. By Gillian Spalding-Stracey. Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity 19. Leiden: Brill, 2020. xxiii + 241 pp. $197.00 cloth.

The Cross in the Visual Culture of Late Antique Egypt. By Gillian Spalding-Stracey. Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity 19. Leiden: Brill, 2020. xxiii + 241 pp. $197.00 cloth. - Volume 90 Issue 4

Guardianship of Women in Late Antique Egypt

Guardianship of Women in Late Antique Egypt

The Cross in the Visual Culture of Late Antique Egypt. By Gillian Spalding- Stracey

<i>The Cross in the Visual Culture of Late Antique Egypt</i>. By <scp>Gillian Spalding-</scp> <scp>Stracey</scp>

Christianizing Egypt: Syncretism and Local Worlds in Late Antiquity

In Christianizing Egypt: Syncretism and Local Worlds in Late Antiquity, David Frankfurter endeavors to redefine the term “syncretism” and to apply it to a new methodological framework for analyzing Christianization. The focus of his study is how people in late antique Egyptian culture combined traditional pagan elements with Christian symbols through art, ritual, and written text. While some may disagree with his characterization of “syncretism” and “conversion,” Frankfurter successfully synthetizes an impressive wealth of textual and material culture evidence in his book. He examines evidence ranging from votive objects and visual art to hagiography and other textual accounts of religious rituals, and his thematic organization of these sources lends well to his argument. Frankfurter’s book lays out a useful framework for examining and describing syncretism within the culture while also giving the reader an engaging glimpse into late antique Egypt.Christianizing Egypt is organized thematically around core aspects of late antique Egyptian culture. The first chapter is the most beneficial for researchers outside of Frankfurter’s field, because this chapter cogently outlines his methodology for analyzing syncretism and conversion. Chapter 2 covers the rituals of the domestic sphere, and in particular the importance of female votive objects in prayers for fertility and childrearing. Chapter 3 discusses holy men and their influence as controllers of spiritual power. Frankfurter illustrates how shrines and dwellings of holy men became places of healing, and that the presence of demons or exorcisms proved the power of Christian spiritual leaders. This theme is elaborated in chapter 4, which discusses the importance of shrines as loci of religious activity of many forms. Frankfurter especially focuses on the importance of festivals, as well as divination through incubation, both of which proved the holiness of a location. Chapter 5 delves into the creation of votive objects, textiles, and art, while chapter 6 discusses the creation of manuscripts and other religious works. Interestingly, Frankfurter focuses more on the artisans than their products in these chapters, discussing how the act of creation imbued an object with special power and conveyed the meaning the object had in the mind of the recipient. The final chapter discusses the importance of landscape for late ancient spirituality, wherein Frankfurter both summarizes and elaborates on earlier points to build a comprehensive picture of the culture.There are many commendable elements of this book, most notably the wealth of sources Frankfurter uses. His chapters on home votive objects and artisans were especially evocative in this regard, because he utilized numerous visual elements of religious practice to depict the lives of ordinary men and women in late Antique Egypt. He gave the items context, both to written descriptions of rituals such as dances and to how these items were valued by individuals and artisans. As well, his employment of both written and archeological evidence masterfully enhanced his discussions in every chapter.One of the major strengths of this book is also one of its weaknesses. Frankfurter endeavors throughout the book to use the term “syncretism” in a unique way. He describes syncretism as a “creative process,” combining elements of paganism with “true Christianity” (11, 15). He therefore sets up a contrast between “conversion” and “syncretism,” showing where the “pagan holdouts” remained within the culture (3–4). Frankfurter is not alone in the use of this contrast, but since his argument rests largely on this concept, it is necessary to critique how Frankfurter specifically uses it in his analysis. This contrast between “syncretism” and “conversion” reflects the written evidence of the period by Christian authors and hagiographers. The problem lies in the fact that these assumptions are not adequately contextualized in a robust way, which sets up a false dichotomy between the “syncretism” practiced by the local population and the concept of “conversion” articulated by educated Christians within the institutional church. Frankfurter has all the sources necessary to make an excellent critique of both the local rituals and the commentators of these rituals, but in the present work he does not go quite far enough in addressing the assumptions of his sources.In sum, Christianizing Egypt does a marvelous job of vivifying the lives of ordinary Christians in late antique Egypt. His unique utilization of the term “syncretism” brings together a wealth of resources on conversion during the late antique period, which illustrates that the culture blended Christian and non-Christian elements into distinctive forms of worship and practice. This book represents a significant contribution to the literature, and it will surely stimulate discussion among scholars for years to come.

The interrelationship between scriptal and linguistic variation in notary signatures of Greek contracts from late antique Egypt

This study investigates linguistic and scriptal variation in notary signatures found in late antique contracts from Egypt, seeking to identify and interpret the potential relationship between choices in language and script. To answer this, theoretical concepts and methods from sociolinguistics, social semiotics, and multilingual studies are used, with the objective of adding a new, more linguistically-oriented perspective to existing research on notarial signatures. On the one hand, this research demonstrates how the Latin script seems to restrict notaries, resulting in transliterated Greek signatures with very homogeneous content. The familiarity of notaries with the Greek language and writing is, on the other hand, reflected in signatures written in the Greek alphabet, which are much more diverse and at times adjusted to the circumstances under which specific documents were composed. Even if notaries seem to lack confidence in freely producing text in the Latin script, they choose to do so due to its functional values, which are conveyed and perceived visually. Latin letters create an association between signatories and Roman law, adding to the trustworthiness and prestige of the signatures. Differentiating between script and language allows us to understand how the Latin script maintained the connotations that formerly accompanied the Latin language, gradually replacing it in the form of transliterated passages, at a time when the language was disappearing from papyrological documentation. In this sense, sociolinguistics, and especially social semiotics, prove useful when dealing with visual aspects of language in papyri, as they prevent their functions and meanings from being overlooked.

Prosopographica IV

Abstract A sequel to a series of notes on high-ranking persons in Late Antique Egypt, continued from APF 65 (2019) 348-56. Full editions of two papyri briefly described in P.Lond. III are given in an Appendix.

Healing in Christian Liturgy in Late Antique Egypt: Sources and Perspectives

Abstract Health and healing were of constant interest for Christian communities in late antique Egypt. Accordingly, a broad range of therapeutic rituals were on offer by the clergy, by monks, and in martyr shrines. Of all these, this paper explores prayers and gestures performed and substances consecrated in a liturgical context as well as some related practices, with a focus on the fourth and fifth centuries, from which most relevant sources hail. Besides reconstructing the rites themselves as far as the evidence allows – including intercessions for the sick, prayers for laying on of hands, and the consecration of oil (and water and bread) and the anointing of the sick in various liturgical contexts –, I also consider them as interpersonal therapeutic rituals and attempt to evaluate them through the lens of medical and anthropological placebo theories. With due attention to the methodological difficulties, I argue that the decline and transformation of liturgical healing rites after the fifth century may partially be explained with their modest ‘placebogenic potential’ compared to other rites on offer in the late antique ‘market of healing’.

Bread in the Desert: The Politics and Practicalities of Food in Early Egyptian Monasticism

AbstractThe Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Desert Fathers) offer a compelling literary perspective on the daily lives of early Egyptian monastics. The routine necessities of food and drink played a distinct part in the physical and spiritual survival of these novel monastic communities. When, what, and how much a monk ate could cause celebration or scandal. Every meal was likewise a test. This study has two purposes. First, it situates the Sayings's many references to bread, salt, oil, and fruit within the dietary possibilities of late antique Egypt. Second, and more broadly, this study highlights the place of eating (or not eating) as it relates to particular monastic notions of spiritual wellbeing. Meals were always an arena for acts of heroic asceticism, but they also served as highly charged communal confrontations, a dizzying back and forth of hospitality received or rejected, of honor and shame played out in alimentary paradoxes. In this, the Sayings bear witness to the spiritual politics of eating within Egyptian monastic culture and provide insight into the formation of late antique religious identities, betraying fundamental tensions inherent in other forms of Christian literature.