74892 - Documentary Sources of Greek-Roman Egypt (1)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students have acquired the necessary tools for reading, annotating, dating and interpreting papyrus texts of the graeco-roman period. At the end of the course students:

• can explain original documents and can describe and discuss the main issues concerning public institutions, society, private and public relationships of the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Egypt and of the periodizations' question.
• can contextualize documents by relating them to the main problems and themes of Papyrology as an academic subject, and can employ some of the main methodological tools to interpret literary and documentary papyri dating to the Ptolemaic, Roman and Byzantine periods;
• can apply with accuracy retrival methods and tools (including digital repositories) for locationg parallel texts and secondary bibliography;
• can employ the necessary tools for cataloguing, preserving and communicating to the public the historical relevance of the papyrological documentary patrimony.

Course contents

Course contents:

1. How to read, annotate, date, interpretate a papyrus text: methodology, tecnique, heuristic.
2. Documentary typologies, reading of original texts concerning institutions, society, public and private relationship in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.
3. Papyri from other regions of the Ancient World.
4. Literary and sub-literary texts: production and circulation of texts in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.
5. Exercises: practice of the main traditional and coputer tools for scientifc research in Papyrology.

Readings/Bibliography

1. Individual study text:

Students in Classics:
O. Montevecchi, La Papirologia, Vita e Pensiero, Milano 1988,

• Introduzione (pp. 3-29);
• Parte prima (pp. 47-72);
• Parte seconda (pp. 91-174)
• Parte terza (pp. 175-239);
• Parte sesta (pp. 335-401).

Students in Anthropology

• A.K. Bowman, Egypt after the Pharaos, Oxford, OUP, 1990; and
  
• R. Bagnall, Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History, London - New York 1995

2. Students will be asked to answer questions about the original texts presented in the lectures.
Original texts will be available in photocopy with translation and commentary in Italian, German, French and English, depending on the original edition. All the texts will be translated and discussed in the lectures.

The students who cannot partecipate to the classes can prepare a different selection of textes with a translation and commentary which can be understood and sudied without the explanation of the lecturer. They will be expected to know the topics addressed by the books indicated on point 1.

Teaching methods

The course unit will consist mainly in lectures and in practical session (transcribing, annotating, commenting original texts). Some practical sessions will be held in the University library in order to work with the collection of original texts preserved there.

Assessment methods

Oral examination will test the student ability to analyze and interpretate original sources for historical reconstruction (of political history, history of administration, economic and social history, cultural history and history of literature) starting from texts discussed in class. The ability to use the scientific tools of the discipline will be checked through discussion of the exercise results.

Teaching tools

Students will be asked to get acquainted, at least to a basic extent, to the main scientific tools for research in Papyrology, both bibliographical (in the library of the ancient history section of the department) and computer supported (see the description at the web address: http://www.rassegna.unibo.it/papiri.html).

Office hours

See the website of Carla Salvaterra