Collectanea Hellenistica
3 primary works
Volume 3
The small town of Pathyris, modern Gebelein, is located south of Thebes.
After a huge revolt suppressed in 186 B.C., a Ptolemaic military camp
was built in this town, where local people could serve as
soldiers-serving-for-pay. The Government took several initiatives to
Hellenize the town, resulting in a bilingual society. The town produced
hundreds of papyri and ostraka, discovered during legal excavations and
illegal diggings at the end of the 19th century and in the 20th century.
Katelijn Vandorpe and Sofie Waebens describe the history of the town and
reconstruct the bilingual archives by using, among other things,
prosopographical data and the method of museum archaeology.
After a huge revolt suppressed in 186 B.C., a Ptolemaic military camp
was built in this town, where local people could serve as
soldiers-serving-for-pay. The Government took several initiatives to
Hellenize the town, resulting in a bilingual society. The town produced
hundreds of papyri and ostraka, discovered during legal excavations and
illegal diggings at the end of the 19th century and in the 20th century.
Katelijn Vandorpe and Sofie Waebens describe the history of the town and
reconstruct the bilingual archives by using, among other things,
prosopographical data and the method of museum archaeology.
Volume 4
The Bilingual Family Archive of Dryton, his Wife Apollonia and their Daughter Senmouthis
by K. Vandorpe
Published 1 January 2002
This volume contains an introduction and edition of the bilingual family
archive of Dryton, his wife Apollonia alias Senmonthis and their
offspring. The Cretan officer Dryton, son of Pamphilos, served in the
Ptolemaic army of the second century B.C. A son was born out of his
first marriage. When he was about 40 years old, Dryton entered a second
marriage with an Egyptian girl Apollonia alias Senmonthis, a daughter of
a fellow soldier. Dryton went to live in the small town of Pathyris,
south of Thebes. The couple had five daughters. The family's archive
contains a diversity of Greek and Demotic texts written on papyrus and
ostraka, reflecting Greek and Egyptian traditions. The archive is
important for research on multicultural societies.
In the Upper Egyptian town Pathyris nearly twenty bilingual family
archives have been found, dating to the second and first centuries BCE.
They contain different types of documents, but contracts play an
important role. Most of the Greek contracts were written by notaries
(agoranomoi), whose native language was Egyptian. This study
describes the language contact situation in Hellenistic Egypt in general
and in Pathyris in particular. Notarial offices and scribal families in
Upper Egypt are also discussed.
archive of Dryton, his wife Apollonia alias Senmonthis and their
offspring. The Cretan officer Dryton, son of Pamphilos, served in the
Ptolemaic army of the second century B.C. A son was born out of his
first marriage. When he was about 40 years old, Dryton entered a second
marriage with an Egyptian girl Apollonia alias Senmonthis, a daughter of
a fellow soldier. Dryton went to live in the small town of Pathyris,
south of Thebes. The couple had five daughters. The family's archive
contains a diversity of Greek and Demotic texts written on papyrus and
ostraka, reflecting Greek and Egyptian traditions. The archive is
important for research on multicultural societies.
In the Upper Egyptian town Pathyris nearly twenty bilingual family
archives have been found, dating to the second and first centuries BCE.
They contain different types of documents, but contracts play an
important role. Most of the Greek contracts were written by notaries
(agoranomoi), whose native language was Egyptian. This study
describes the language contact situation in Hellenistic Egypt in general
and in Pathyris in particular. Notarial offices and scribal families in
Upper Egypt are also discussed.
Volume 6
Graeco-Roman Archives from the Fayum
by W. Clarysse, K. Vandorpe, and Herbert Verreth
Published 25 June 2015
The Fayum is a large depression in the western desert of Egypt,
receiving its water directly from the Nile. In the early Ptolemaic
period the agricultural area expanded a great deal, new villages were
founded and many Greeks settled here. When villages on the outskirts
were abandoned about AD 300-400, houses and cemeteries remained intact
for centuries. Here were found thousands of papyri, ostraca (potsherds)
and hundreds of mummy portraits, which have made the area famous among
classicists and art historians alike. Most papyri and ostraca are now
scattered over collections all over the world. The sixth volume of Collectanea
Hellenistica presents 145 reconstructed archives originating from
this region, including private, professional, official and temple
archives both in Greek and in native Demotic.
receiving its water directly from the Nile. In the early Ptolemaic
period the agricultural area expanded a great deal, new villages were
founded and many Greeks settled here. When villages on the outskirts
were abandoned about AD 300-400, houses and cemeteries remained intact
for centuries. Here were found thousands of papyri, ostraca (potsherds)
and hundreds of mummy portraits, which have made the area famous among
classicists and art historians alike. Most papyri and ostraca are now
scattered over collections all over the world. The sixth volume of Collectanea
Hellenistica presents 145 reconstructed archives originating from
this region, including private, professional, official and temple
archives both in Greek and in native Demotic.