LOUISE BLANKE is Lecturer in Late Antique Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. She has authored An Archaeology of Egyptian Monasticism: Settlement, Economy, and Daily Life at the White Monastery Federation (2019) and has directed archaeological projects and participated in fieldwork at sites in Egypt, Denmark, Jordan, and Qatar. JENNIFER CROMWELL is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research interests lie in the study of village and monastic life in late antique and early Islamic Egypt. She is the author of Recording Village Life: A Coptic Scribe in Early Islamic Egypt (2017).

'This remarkable and important book offers a valuable and necessary deepening of our understanding of early Christian monasticism by turning our attention again and again to the social-material-economic dimensions of that world. The exacting and painstaking scholarship found throughout this book reveals how much we can learn by taking seriously the eloquence of the hidden, the obscure, and the minute: papyri, pottery shards, barely legible inscriptions, paleobotanical evidence, the ghostly presence of ancient waterways, and so much more. It is hard not to marvel at the imaginative reach required to build an entire world out of this fragmentary evidence and to appreciate the immense effort undertaken to do so.' Doug Christie, Cistercian Studies Quarterly

• Introduction: the monastic economies in late antique Egypt and Palestine: past, present and future Louise Blanke and Jennifer Cromwell; Part I. The Monastic Estate: 2. Monastic estates in Byzantine Arabia and Palaestina (Fourth–Ninth Centuries) Basema Hamarneh; 3. Monastic estates in transition from Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: evidence from Aphrodito Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello; 4. The naqlun fathers and their business affairs: private assets and activities of the monks in a semi-anchorite community in the late antique fayum Tomasz Derda and Joanna Wegner; Part II. Production and Consumption of Food and Material Goods: 5. Monastic vintages: the economic role of wine in Egyptian monasteries in the sixth-eighth centuries Dorota Dzierzbicka; 6. Cooking, baking and serving: a window into the kitchen of Egyptian monastic households and the archaeology of cooking Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom; 7. The refectory and the kitchen in the early Byzantine monastery of tell bi'a (Syria): the Egyptian and Palestinian connections Gábor Kalla; 8. It's a dung job: exploring fuel disc production in Egyptian monasteries Mennat-Allah El Dorry; 9. Illuminating the scriptorium: monastic book production at the medieval monastery of St Michael Andrea Myers Achi; Part III. Monastic Encounters: Travel, Pilgrimage, and Donations: 10. Distinguishing offerings from blessings in early Byzantine Monasticism: The significance of P. Ness. III 79 (c. 600 CE) Daniel F. Caner; 11. Staple for body and soul working at and visiting the upper Egyptian monastery deir anba hadra Lena Sophie Krastel, Sebastian Olschok and Tonio Sebastian Richter; 12. The monastic landscape of mount Nebo: an economic pattern in the province of Arabia Davide Bianchi; 13. Travel in the texts: monastic journeys in late antique Egypt Paula Tutty.

LOUISE BLANKE is Lecturer in Late Antique Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. She has authored An Archaeology of Egyptian Monasticism: Settlement, Economy, and Daily Life at the White Monastery Federation (2019) and has directed archaeological projects and participated in fieldwork at sites in Egypt, Denmark, Jordan, and Qatar. JENNIFER CROMWELL is Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research interests lie in the study of village and monastic life in late antique and early Islamic Egypt. She is the author of Recording Village Life: A Coptic Scribe in Early Islamic Egypt (2017).

'This remarkable and important book offers a valuable and necessary deepening of our understanding of early Christian monasticism by turning our attention again and again to the social-material-economic dimensions of that world. The exacting and painstaking scholarship found throughout this book reveals how much we can learn by taking seriously the eloquence of the hidden, the obscure, and the minute: papyri, pottery shards, barely legible inscriptions, paleobotanical evidence, the ghostly presence of ancient waterways, and so much more. It is hard not to marvel at the imaginative reach required to build an entire world out of this fragmentary evidence and to appreciate the immense effort undertaken to do so.' Doug Christie, Cistercian Studies Quarterly

• Introduction: the monastic economies in late antique Egypt and Palestine: past, present and future Louise Blanke and Jennifer Cromwell; Part I. The Monastic Estate: 2. Monastic estates in Byzantine Arabia and Palaestina (Fourth–Ninth Centuries) Basema Hamarneh; 3. Monastic estates in transition from Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: evidence from Aphrodito Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello; 4. The naqlun fathers and their business affairs: private assets and activities of the monks in a semi-anchorite community in the late antique fayum Tomasz Derda and Joanna Wegner; Part II. Production and Consumption of Food and Material Goods: 5. Monastic vintages: the economic role of wine in Egyptian monasteries in the sixth-eighth centuries Dorota Dzierzbicka; 6. Cooking, baking and serving: a window into the kitchen of Egyptian monastic households and the archaeology of cooking Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom; 7. The refectory and the kitchen in the early Byzantine monastery of tell bi'a (Syria): the Egyptian and Palestinian connections Gábor Kalla; 8. It's a dung job: exploring fuel disc production in Egyptian monasteries Mennat-Allah El Dorry; 9. Illuminating the scriptorium: monastic book production at the medieval monastery of St Michael Andrea Myers Achi; Part III. Monastic Encounters: Travel, Pilgrimage, and Donations: 10. Distinguishing offerings from blessings in early Byzantine Monasticism: The significance of P. Ness. III 79 (c. 600 CE) Daniel F. Caner; 11. Staple for body and soul working at and visiting the upper Egyptian monastery deir anba hadra Lena Sophie Krastel, Sebastian Olschok and Tonio Sebastian Richter; 12. The monastic landscape of mount Nebo: an economic pattern in the province of Arabia Davide Bianchi; 13. Travel in the texts: monastic journeys in late antique Egypt Paula Tutty.