Reviewed by: The Epigraphy of Ptolemaic Egypt ed. by Alan Bowman and Charles Crowther Brian Muhs (bio) The Epigraphy of Ptolemaic Egypt Alan Bowman and Charles Crowther (eds.) Oxford University Press, 2020. xxviii + 353 pp. $115.00 hardcover. This volume provides a welcome introduction to and survey of Greek epigraphy from Ptolemaic Egypt (332-30 BCE). It is a collection of chapters on various aspects of Ptolemaic Greek epigraphy that originated from a conference held in 2016, and it accompanies a separate Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions that collects and publishes new editions of the Greek inscriptions discussed in the volume. The focus on the Ptolemaic period distinguishes the volume and the corpus from previous corpora, which [End Page 211] frequently combined Greek inscriptions from the Ptolemaic, Roman and other periods, and which were frequently restricted to specific regions of Egypt or to specific inscription types. This focus allows the chapters in the volume to explore the unique characteristics of Greek inscriptions under Ptolemaic rule. The chapters employ a variety of methods of categorizing and analyzing inscriptions, including language (monolingual Greek or multilingual), provenance (the Greek cities of Naukratis, Alexandria and Ptolemais, or the Egyptian countryside), media (Greek or Egyptian-style monuments), genres and types (foundation deposits, sacred dedications, and metrical texts), dedicants (soldiers and private associations), and methodology (content or palaeography). Most chapters employ statistics to provide overviews of the sets of inscriptions that they discuss, along with individual case studies to provide illustrative details. The editors have ensured that there is no unnecessary repetition of case studies between chapters, though their sets of inscriptions frequently overlap. Together the chapters effectively provide a survey of Ptolemaic Greek epigraphy, albeit with variable degrees of granularity. One interesting feature of Greek epigraphy from Ptolemaic Egypt is that it developed alongside a flourishing indigenous Egyptian epigraphic tradition. This feature means that the title of the volume is misleading. The use of the definite article in 'The Epigraphy' suggests that it covers all of the epigraphy of Ptolemaic Egypt, but the volume and the corpus are explicitly focused on Greek epigraphy and not the more numerous and extensive Egyptian-language inscriptions in Hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts from Ptolemaic Egypt. Language-restricted corpora do have their uses and some of the chapters in the volume explore them, such as Alan Bowman's chapter on Greek inscriptions of the cities of Naukratis, Alexandria, and Ptolemais, Kyriakos Savvopoulos's chapter on royal dedications from Alexandria, Simon Hornblower's chapter on Greek metrical texts, or Charles Crowther's chapter on Greek palaeography. Fortunately, other chapters in the volume investigate the ways in which Greek and Egyptian epigraphy interact, such as Rachel Mairs's chapter on multilingual inscriptions, and Dorothy Thompson's chapter on foundation deposits, in which Greek and Egyptian language inscriptions alternate and complement one another. Still other chapters acknowledge the entangled relationship between Greek and Egyptian epigraphic habits in Ptolemaic Egypt while remaining focused on Greek inscriptions, such as Willy Clarysse's chapter on Greek texts on Egyptian-style monuments, or Christelle Fischer-Bovet's chapter on Greek inscriptions dedicated by soldiers from diverse backgrounds in a variety of social contexts including Egyptian temples. [End Page 212] Another interesting feature of Greek epigraphy from Ptolemaic Egypt is that it exists alongside abundant documentary texts in both Greek and Demotic, while similar papyrological sources have rarely survived elsewhere in the ancient world. One chapter in the volume directly studies the relationship between epigraphic and papyrological sources, namely Willy Clarysse's chapter on inscriptions and papyri. Mario Paganini's chapter on Greek inscriptions dedicated by private associations in the Egyptian countryside also draws on the numerous references to private associations in documentary texts. Supratik Baralay's chapter on Hellenistic sacred dedications observes that individuals with Egyptian names rarely commemorated sacred dedications to Egyptian gods in Greek language inscriptions except in the Fayum and suggests a link to the high proportion of individuals with Greek names found in documentary texts from the Fayum in relation to taxation and the census. In summary, this volume provides a valuable introduction to Greek epigraphy in Ptolemaic Egypt. It describes the various types of Greek inscriptions, and several different approaches to studying them...
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Jan 15, 2024
Martina Savio 
Open Access