IFAO

Abstract

Karanis was a bustling village of the Roman Fayum that is well known thanks to excavation and abundant finds of papyri. This paper outlines two family archives that the speaker is editing with Prof. Paul Heilporn (Université de Strasbourg), both found in the large granary C123 during the University of Michigan excavations of the 1920s and 30s and today split between Michigan and Cairo. The archive of Pnepheros revolves around a family of public farmers and is one of the best examples of a peasant family in Roman Egypt next to the archive of Harthotes of Theadelphia. The other centers on the Roman soldier Apollinarius, who came from a rich, slave-owning family and followed his father into the legions. This archive is well known for Apollinarius' emotive letters from Arabia, which are now augmented by new finds and the identification of his handwriting. A group of unpublished texts reveals the key role of Apollinarius' great aunt Sambathion as she made arrangements for the family in her blind old age. Together these archives highlight the wide range of lived experiences in Roman Karanis, from a middling family steering their course through peasant society to an upwardly-mobile family finding success under the Roman imperial umbrella.

The Speaker

Graham Claytor is a research associate in the Faculty of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw, where he is conducting research as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow on the peasant family of Harthotes from early Roman Egypt (POLONEZ project No. 2021/43/P/HS3/00651). He is an active editor of papyri, with a focus on family archives and notarial institutions in Greco-Roman Egypt, and recently co-edited Papyrologische und althistorische Studien zum 65. Geburtstag von Andrea Jördens (Harrassowitz 2023, with L. Berkes and M. Nowak).

Les conférences de l’Ifao

Les conférences de l'Ifao ont pour objectif la transmission des résultats des recherches en cours ou très récentes, par des chercheurs confirmés. Y sont conviés essentiellement les chercheurs impliqués dans les différentes opérations scientifiques de l'Ifao lors de leur passage par l'Institut. ِElles sont également parfois le lieu de présentation d'ouvrages récemment parus à l'Ifao par  leurs autheurs. Les conférences de l'Ifao ont lieu traditionnellement le mercredi à 18h, en français ou en anglais.

IFAO Lectures series aim to transmit the results of current or very recent research by confirmed researchers. They are mainly animated by researchers involved in IFAO's various scientific programs and projects during their stay at the Institute. They are also sometimes the occasion for presentations, by their authors, of books recently published by the IFAO.

IFAO Lectures series are traditionally held on Wednesdays at 6 p.m., in French or English.