P.W. Pestman – författare

The New Papyrological Primer is a fully revised and expanded edition of David and Groningen's 1964 standard introduction to Greek papyrological texts. The current edition contains 81 Greek texts, arranged in a chronological order, which illustrate various aspects of life in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Egypt. Each text is provided with a short commentary and explanatory notes, which aim to allow students to understand the text and to place it accurately in its social context. A lengthy introduction provides general background information, data about the texts examined and discussion of a number of commonly neglected topics. A glossary of Greek terms is appended. The work contains numerous plates, illustrations and maps.

The choachytes (or morticians) of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes provided a rich documentation linking the city of the living on one side of the Nile with the city of the dead on the other. The family archives of these choachytes deal to a large part with their professional role in serving the dead entrusted to their care, but they are also virtually our only source of information about the city of Thebes, whose physical remains were ruthlessly obliterated in the nineteenth century. This material constitute one end of a chain which links the temple statues of Amun's servants and descriptions of their houses on the one hand with their tombs and their tomb inventories on the other, allowing us to identify individual choachytes from their papers. The papyrological finds can thus provide an exact dating for objects that might otherwise be only dated to within several centuries, while the objects themselves and the tomb architecture provide a factual dimension to historical and legal documents which might otherwise remain flat and arid.It was in order to draw attention to the richness of all the constituent parts of this documentation that a number of scholars were invited to present their views on Graeco-Roman Thebes at a colloqium held from 9 to 11 September 1992 in Leiden, the Netherlands. The survey papers and communications presented at this colloqium are published here.

The print edition is available as a set of three volumes (9789004052550).

The print edition is available as a set of three volumes (9789004052550).

The New Papyrological Primer is a fully revised and expanded edition of David and Groningen's 1964 standard introduction to Greek papyrological texts. The current edition contains 81 Greek texts, arranged in a chronological order, which illustrate various aspects of life in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Egypt. Each text is provided with a short commentary and explanatory notes, which aim to allow students to understand the text and to place it accurately in its social context. A lengthy introduction provides general background information, data about the texts examined and discussion of a number of commonly neglected topics. A glossary of Greek terms is appended. The work contains numerous plates, illustrations and maps.