ISBN : 9780197266779
This volume is the first to survey village institutions in Egypt during the first eight centuries AD, from the beginning of Roman rule to the early Arab period. Villages in the ancient Mediterranean world, in contrast to cities, have been little studied and the communal life of the majority rural population is ill understood. The rich evidence of the documentary papyri from Egypt, half of which come from village sites, permits both study of topics in detail and comparisons across time. This volume covers rural institutions including associations, local officials, banks, record-offices, legal procedures, festivals and monasteries. It identifies and discusses recurrent issues and structural changes in the power relationships between the central and regional city-based authorities and the rural population and their representatives in Egypt, and aims to stimulate comparative study of villages in other areas of the ancient world.
Notes on Contributors
Preface
Maps
1 MICAELA LANGELLOTTI and D. W. RATHBONE: Introduction
2 ROBERTO MASCELLARI: Police procedures and petitions in Roman Egypt: the role of village officials
3 MARIO PAGANINI: Private associations and village life in early Roman Egypt
4 SILVIA STRASSI: Elders (presbuteroi) of the farmers and of the village in Roman Egypt: the cases of Bacchias and Karanis
5 THOMAS KRUSE: The association of state farmers and its role in village administration in Roman Egypt
6 MICAELA LANGELLOTTI: Record-offices in villages in Roman Egypt
7 MARIA NOWAK: Village or town: Did it matter for making wills in Roman Egypt?
8 FRANCOIS LEROUXEL: Private banks in villages of Roman Egypt
9 ANDREA JORDENS: Festivals and celebrations in the countryside
10 LAJOS BERKES: Fiscal institution or local community? The village koinon in Late Antiquity (4th-8th centuries)
11 GESA SCHENKE: The monastery of Apa Apollo as landowner and employer
12 ARIETTA PAPACOSTANTINOU: 'Great Men', churchmen, and the others: forms of authority in the villages of the Umayyad period