This paper examines an undernoticed theme of the papyrus archive of the Theban royal bank, contextualizing data on Amun’s Userhat boat and the Theban religious festivals in the later Ptolemaic period. The bank archive reveals the fraudulent use of money deposits destined for the replacement of two iron anchors for the Userhat and for the maintenance of this sacred riverine ship which transported Amun’s sacred bark twice a year (during the Opet and the Valley Festivals). The Userhat is well attested in the pharaonic period, while the information for the Ptolemaic era, though scarce, shows that the main Theban festivals were still organized and that the Userhat still played a major role. The documentary evidence offers more detail on royal investment in the ship’s maintenance even during a civil war, its outer appearance, on the saline basin where it was moored and the storage place of its removable parts. The association of the Ptolemaic Userhat with the Opet temple, as suggested by the bank records, fits with a shift in focus towards this sanctuary in the later Ptolemaic period.
The Companion takes a largely sociological perspective and includes a section on life portraits at the end of each part. The theme of identity in a multicultural environment and a chapter on the quality of life of Egypt's inhabitants clearly illustrate this objective. The authors put the emphasis on the changes that occurred in the Greco-Roman and Late Antique periods, as illustrated by such topics as: Traditional religious life challenged; Governing a country with a past: between tradition and innovation; and Creative minds in theory and praxis. This important resource:
For Greco-Roman Egypt we have exceptional material at our disposal. Papyri are like photographs, which allow us to take an honest glance at people’s private lives, but there is more: people’s private archives present a coherent film of a person’s or family’s lives over a longer period. Papyrologists discuss in great detail their names, habits, professions, taxes, the contents of their archives, but they hardly ask themselves: what made people happy in Greco-Roman Egypt? Whatwas important to them? The happiness or quality of life index is nowadays based on a specific set of indicators such as economic satisfaction, growth or prosperity, entrepreneurship, political participation, education, health, safety (national and personal), personal freedom (social tolerance, individual freedom) and social and family networks. To which degree can these indicators be applied to the evidence of Greco-Roman Egypt in order to give papyrological research a new impulse?This article focuses on the dominant indicators for happiness in Egypt, on new types of research questions in the domain of papyrology, and develops new suggestions for the evaluation of governmental policies in Greco-Roman times.
Edition of T. BM inv.no. EA 56920. - A bilingual set of wooden tablets from the archive of Horos, son of Nechouthes. - A parallel set of wooden tablets from the archive of Peteharsemtheus, son of Panebchounis. - Paying prostimon or qns in Ptolemaic Egypt.
AbstractArsinoe II was one of the most prominent and popular queens of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, and set an enviable example for her successor‐queens in many respects. Arsinoe was born in 316BCEas a daughter of Ptolemy I and his third wife, Berenike I.
AbstractCleopatra I (ca. 204–176BCE) was a Seleucid princess and a Ptolemaic queen. Daughter of King Antiochos III Megas and, presumably, of his first wife Laodike III, she was the first of the Seleucid house to bear the name Cleopatra.
