The Epigraphy of Ptolemaic Egypt

The Ptolemaic period in Egypt (332-30 BC) is one of the most well-documented periods of the Hellenistic age: in addition to the papyrological record there are more than 600 surviving Greek and Greek/Egyptian bilingual and trilingual inscriptions, ranging from massive public monuments, such as the Rosetta Stone, to small private dedications, funerary plaques, and metrical epigrams for the deceased. This volume offers a series of detailed studies of the historical and cultural contexts of these important inscriptions and is intended to complement the multi-volume Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions edition, in which the Greek and Egyptian texts will be presented together for the first time.

The subjects discussed in the twelve chapters range widely across a variety of sub-disciplines, from advances in new technologies of image-capture, the juxtaposition of Greek and Egyptian elements in the layout and iconography of the monuments, and the palaeography of the Greek texts, to the history of the acquisition and study of the great bilingual decrees voted by the priests of the indigenous Egyptian cults, the introduction of Greek civic administration and communal associations in the cities and villages, and the role of the military in monumental commemoration. Particular attention is given to the role of indigenous and Greek religious institutions in Alexandria and the towns and villages of the Nile Delta and Valley, in which commemorative dedications to divinities of temples and statues by the monarchs and by private individuals are numerous and prominent.

In a period shaped by the interplay between Egyptian and Greek culture, the existence of public and private inscribed monuments was a vital element of dynastic control. The unique insights offered by this thorough examination of the epigraphical landscape of Ptolemaic Egypt are invaluable to understanding the ways in which the Greek immigrant rulers and population established and reinforced their social and cultural dominance of an indigenous population which had its own long-established and traditional written and iconographic mode of public and private communication.

Alan Bowman, Camden Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, University of Oxford; former Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford,Charles Crowther, Associate Professor of Greek Epigraphy and Associate Director of the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, University of Oxford; Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford

Alan Bowman is Camden Professor Emeritus of Ancient History at the University of Oxford, and former Principal of Brasenose College. A Fellow of the British Academy, he served as its Vice-President (Humanities) from 2014 until 2018, and was also formerly the President of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. He founded the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford in 1995, serving as its Director until October 2018. He remains Co-Director of The Oxford Roman Economy Project and his other research projects include further work on the Vindolanda Writing-Tablets and on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, image-enhancement of damaged documents, and the development of Digital Humanities.

Charles Crowther is Associate Professor of Greek Epigraphy and Associate Director of the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents at the University of Oxford, and also a Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford. He obtained his doctorate in Hellenistic History at King's College London and previously held teaching posts both there and at the Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations in Changchun in north-eastern China. His current research interests lie primarily in Hellenistic Greek history, in particular in the history of institutions, and in the epigraphy of Chios and the Commagene region of south-eastern Turkey.

List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Abbreviations
List of Contributors
1. Introduction: The Epigraphy of Ptolemaic Egypt, Alan Bowman and Charles Crowther
2. Imaging Inscriptions: The Kingston Lacy Obelisk, Jane Mass?glia
3. Beyond Rosetta: Multilingual Inscriptions, the Antiquities Trade, and the Decipherment of Egyptian Scripts, Rachel Mairs
4. Greek Texts on Egyptian Monuments, Willy Clarysse
5. The Epigraphy of the 'Greek Cities', Alan Bowman
6. Religious Life in Ptolemaic Alexandria Under the Royal Aegis: An Overview of the Epigraphic Evidence, Kyriakos Savvopoulos
7. Foundation Deposits from Third-Century BC Egypt, Dorothy J. Thompson
8. Hellenistic Sacred Dedications: The View from Egypt, Supratik Baralay
9. Soldiers in the Epigraphy of Ptolemaic Egypt, Christelle Fischer-Bovet
10. Inscriptions and Papyri: Two Intersecting Worlds, Willy Clarysse
11. Epigraphic Habits of Private Associations in the Ptolemaic Chora, Mario C. D. Paganini
12. The Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions: The Metrical Texts, Simon Hornblower
13. The Palaeography of Ptolemaic Inscriptions from Egypt, Charles Crowther
Appendix: List of Texts in the Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions
Bibliography
Indexes