Graeco-Roman Fayum: Texts and Archaeology.

• Author: Nevett, Lisa
• Position: Book review

Graeco-Roman Fayum: Texts and Archaeology. Edited by SANDRA LIPPERT and MAREN SCHENTULEIT. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2008. Pp. viii + 245, illus. [euro]58 (paper).

This volume consists of twenty papers presented at the third international symposium on the Fayum, held in Freudenstadt, Germany, in 2007. The contributions (written in English, French, German, or Italian) are diverse in subject matter, data, and approach, ranging from accounts of new archaeological or papyrological discoveries through to problem-oriented discussions of wider sets of textual evidence. Together, they offer a sample of recent research on the Graeco-Roman Fayum being undertaken by scholars from across Europe and (in three cases) in the United States.

Among the more text-oriented papers, Isabella Andorlini demonstrates just how far new technology can help to increase the information to be extracted from papyrus fragments, describing the virtual reconstruction of Greek medical texts now located in a number of different libraries across the world. In the administrative sphere, Carolin Arlt discusses the role of notaries in the Ptolemaic Fayum, concluding that there were regional differences in patterns of office-holding. Tomasz Derda explores evidence for the date and pace of administrative change accompanying the introduction of Roman rule, suggesting a more complex and slower process than has hitherto been assumed. In relation to agriculture and the economy, Andrew Monson models patterns of land-tenure and levels of population in the Fayum and Delta regions. Using comparative evidence from late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Egypt he argues that the high proportion of public land in the Roman Fayum was linked with relatively low levels of population in the region.

A brief contribution by Andreas Winkler outlines work on a database of Greek and Demotic agricultural texts from the Hellenistic and Roman Fayum, which is part of a larger interdisciplinary project to investigate the rural economy of the area. Fabian Reiter discusses evidence for state monopolies during the Imperial period, using the example of brick production in the Arsinoite nome. In the religious sphere, Holger Kockelmann investigates the relationship between the cult of Sobek and other forms of crocodile worship, both in the Fayum and elsewhere in Egypt, emphasizing the long history of crocodile cults. Ivan Guermeur discusses nine demotic papyrus texts of religious character, brought to...