ISAW Library hosts 2025 New York Metro Papyrology Workshop

The ISAW Library hosted the 2025 New York Metro Papyrology Workshop on April 11, 2025. This was the second meeting of this workshop. The first was organized by the ISAW Library in December 2022 as a forum for papyrologists, librarians, conservators, and others who have papyrological projects to share recent work and updates. A secondary aim of the workshop is to help connect graduate students and others new either to papyrology or to the region to the papyrological network in the New York metro area, a manifestation and extension of amicitia papyrologorum (“the friendship of papyrologists”), the animating spirit and motto of papyrologists worldwide.

The workshop was inspired by the papyrological seminar that Prof. Roger S. Bagnall, the first Leon Levy Director of ISAW, hosted in his apartment in New York for over thirty years.

The program (reproduced below) showcased research largely focused on the Roman and Late Antique periods of Egypt, with presentations by scholars from all stages of their careers, from senior scholars to graduate students working on dissertation and other research projects. The topics ranged from economics, administration and law, to science, magic, and scribal practices. Those assembled agreed that the workshop was a tremendous success, making a real contribution to strengthening this small community of academic practice. Not only were ideas and research shared, but plans for new joint projects were also discussed, including a third convening of the workshop next year. See you all in 2026!

Program

Economic, administrative, and legal history of Roman Egypt

Reexamining Wage Rates in the Early Roman Empire: New Frontiers for Quantitative Analysis (Gabriel Parlin, Harvard)

This paper reconsiders the documentary evidence for ancient wage rates in Roman Egypt prior to the third century CE. Previous studies of this material (e.g., Scheidel, 2002; Freu, 2015; Harper, 2016) are methodologically flawed because they rely on data tables from Drexhage (1991). Though an invaluable resource, Drexhage does not indicate how frequently different wage rates are attested within each papyrus; as a result, a simple average of Drexhage’s wage values overstates the effect of outlier data points. In order to correct for this issue, my analysis combines approximately 12,000 individual wage attestations from 90 documents. This more granular approach allows for (1) the more accurate calculation of weighted averages and (2) an examination of how much wage rates varied around these averages. I conclude that nominal daily wage rates for unskilled workers during this period were likely 15–20% lower than what previous studies have estimated.

The Boule of Heracleopolis Magna in the Third Century CE: Revisiting the Evidence (Lucas Weisser-Gericke, Basel)

In this paper I will reexamine the scarce but significant papyrological evidence of the operations of the city council (or boule) of Heracleopolis Magna during the first century of its existence. While more than twenty documents from the third century CE mention Heracleopolite councillors—32 bouleutai in total—the boule as a political body only appears in four texts, two official letters from the prytanis (BGU 3.924; CPR 23.18) and two records of council proceedings (BGU 3.925; SPP 20.60). With the exception of CPR 23.18, these texts were published in the early twentieth century and have not received much attention since, partly because the two BGU texts were lost in a fire before their edition was even published, alongside the other materials unearthed during Ulrich Wilcken’s 1899 papyrological excavation at Heracleopolis. In my talk, I will address the prospects and pitfalls of a “papyrology without papyri”. More specifically, I will suggest an identification of the addressee of BGU 3.924, whose title has not been preserved and his name only partially; I will explore whether BGU 3.925 is concerned with either a shortage of bouleutai or a tax deficit, both of which have been suggested in previous studies; and I will discuss the complex structure of what are likely the original proceedings of a council meeting (rather than a copy), SPP 20.60, which is not yet fully understood.

Social history: the sociology and economics of dependence in Roman Egypt

10:45 Under My Roof: Roman-Era Marriage and Apprenticeship Contracts in Dialogue (Mikayla Barreiro, Princeton)

This paper reads Roman-era marriage and apprenticeship contracts in dialogue. Both apprenticeships and marriages involved the redistribution of a young person’s labor and the forging of lifelong relationships. This paper, in comparing these contracts, helps to illuminate the economic and social opportunities–and concerns–presented by the introduction of new members into the household.

Vandalism and Weapons of the Weak in Roman Egypt (David M. Ratzan, ISAW)

This paper will describe the role that vandalism played in disputes in Roman Egypt. Two complementary monographs on disputes in Roman Egypt have recently explored the role of petitions, Kelly’s Petitions, Litigation, and Social Control in Roman Egypt (2011) and Bryen’s Violence in Roman Egypt (2013). Though for different ends, both scholars stress the importance of contextualizing petitions in the larger social discourse of disputing and conflict. Kelly, for instance, used letters to exemplify different modes of disputing, illuminating a spectrum of strategies and the depth of the process beyond formal steps, like petitioning. Bryen, on the other hand, attempts to describe the social discourse and uses of violence against persons in disputes, as refracted through petitions. While Kelly discusses some instances of violence against property, which we may call vandalism, neither he nor Bryen (who restricts himself to violence against bodies) systematically pursue conspicuous and malicious property destruction as a deliberate strategy in the wider context of dispute resolution. This paper will discuss methodological problems with recognizing vandalism as a category; collect exemplary instances of the phenomenon; show how they conform to regular patterns in the course of disputes; and relate it to the wider phenomenon of self-help and dead-weight losses in the culturally embedded dispute resolution protocols of Roman Egypt.

Ties that Bind: Relationships of Dependence within Estate Communities of Late Antique Egypt (Lucia Waldschuetz, Princeton)

Between the fifth and seventh centuries, tenants and workers on Egyptian landed estates served as sureties for one another. The contracts, written and preserved on papyri, were required by the landowners upon the debtor’s release from prison to secure future rent and tax payments. The guarantors typically agreed to ensure that their charge would stay on their land, fulfill their work, and appear whenever and wherever requested. My research shows that persons in need of a surety turned to relatives and their local communities looking for support. I demonstrate that these guarantors willingly accepted the liability and, thus, great risks to their livelihoods and social standing when providing surety. Furthermore, I illustrate the ways in which these legal contracts established three-way relationships of dependence between landowners, guarantors, and debtors.

New papyrological editions and scribal practice

Temple Trees, Semitic Names, and Large Estates: An Administrative Papyrus from the Necropolis of Philadelphia (Alejandro Quintana, Yale)

This paper discusses P.Phil.Nec. 24, an unpublished Roman documentary papyrus from Philadelphia dating to the late second-early third centuries CE. Unlike most papyri, P.Phil.Nec. 24 has a secure archeological context, discovered in a grave in the town’s necropolis together with several other papyri, most notably the new Euripides papyrus. After an overview of the context and content of the papyrus, I focus on the list of trees in temples on the verso. This text provides a unique holistic view of the cultic landscape of an unnamed Fayumic village and reveals the ecological dimensions of cult and its intersection with Roman administrative practices. I then turn to the material history of the papyrus. I demonstrate that the unnamed village of the list of trees was located in the northern meris of Polemon. Similarly, the concentration of apparently Semitic names in the sitologoi account on the recto do not suit Philadelphia, and the Egyptian onomastics of this account point to the meris of Polemon. I therefore conclude by considering how this difference between content and findspot contextualizes the archeology of the papyrus.

Solidi and Security: A letter between Eulogios and Theodore (Irene Soto Marín, Harvard)

This paper presents the edition of a letter or receipt (P. Col. Inv. 165) from the chrysones of Arcadia, Aurelius Eulogios, addressed to another chrysones, Flavius Theodore. Dated tentatively to 421 CE, this papyrus offers a glimpse into the role of fifth-century provincial bankers. While certain aspects of the transaction remain elusive, the document elucidates the nature of the relationship among these financial administrators and sheds light on the circulation of gold in Egypt. Although fragmentary, the text captures our attention with its mention of sixty solidi transferred from Eulogios’ office, of which ten were earmarked as security. Furthermore, an agreement emerges regarding the distribution of these funds: in addition to the ten solidi held as collateral, two solidi are to be allocated directly to Theodore. This intriguing glimpse into their financial dealings invites deeper inquiry into the economic networks of the period.

Scribal Alteration in Papyrus Palau-Ribes 225v (Zachary Domach, NYU)

The Sentences of Sextus is a second-century collection of 451 Greek maxims with an overtly Christian tone. Constructed as a guide to achieving moral and spiritual excellence, the gnomology offers an ascetic Christian spin on earlier Pythagorean, Platonic, and Stoic wisdom traditions and presents a rare look into late antique Christianity’s more quotidian forms. Here I examine Papyrus Palau-Ribes 225v, a fragmentary palimpsest whose transfibral side contains 21 clearly identifiable maxims from the Sentences of Sextus. Written in the late fourth or early fifth century, the papyrus is our earliest witness to the Greek version of the Sentences. Although not especially useful for textual criticism, Papyrus Palau-Ribes 225v testifies to the continued circulation of the Greek Sextus in the centuries after Origen. More precisely, it reveals how Christians adapted wisdom literature like the Sentences to their immediate contexts and needs. My paper analyzes the scribal alterations to the Sentences of Sextus which are preserved within Papyrus Palau-Ribes 225v and connects these changes to larger patterns of textual transmission within ancient Mediterranean wisdom literature.

Visual bilingualism: scribes and their training (Sofia Toralles Tovar, IAS, Princeton)

When studying language contact in the ancient world we play with the disadvantage of not having access to the spoken language. Corpus linguistics, however, have developed multiple methods to obtain information from the written sources. Taking one step further in this direction I propose using scribal practice to explore other facets of this linguistic contact: the scribe leaves clues behind that can be used as a window into language perception in a bilingual community such as Roman Egypt

Prof. Sofia Toralles Tovar presenting at the 2025 NY Metro Papyrology Workshop (image by Irene Soto Marín)

Ancient science and magic

Observations on P.Hib. 1.27 (Alexander Jones, ISAW)

P.Hib. 1.27, extracted from mummies datable to around 240 BCE, preserves parts of two interrelated texts: a frame narrative ascribing the writer’s astronomical and calendrical knowledge to his personal acquaintance with an “altogether wise man from Sais”; and a calendrically structured list of dates associated with annually recurring astronomical and meteorological phenomena and religious festivals. In preparation for a new edition with F. Schironi, my paper focuses on the dating of the texts; composition and of the extant copy, and on the rationale according to which the calendar text was constructed. To date the extant copy one cannot simply look for when the astronomical data would have been accurate, ignoring the context of the astronomical culture of early Hellenistic Egypt. And while it is recognized that the calendar text draws on more than one source, e.g. the Greek parapegmata for dates of risings and settings of constellations, whereas the festivals are Egyptian or Greco-Egyptian—the principles on which the text was constructed have not been remarked upon, in particular that the listed calendar dates were determined by the stellar and solar phenomena.

Licking and Swallowing Eggs: The Role of the Senses in the Graeco-Egyptian Magical Papyri (Mathew Andrews, Princeton)

The Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri are filled with detailed instructions on how to perform complex religious rituals. In many rituals the practitioners are instructed to use everyday objects in unusual ways to achieve their magical goals. This talk will explore one particular ritual given in the 3rd/4th century CE magical papyrus, P. Lond. 121 (PGM VII = GEMF 74). It will pay particular attention to the sensory and embodied nature of the ritual to get a better sense of the lived experience of the ritualist. In particular, the use of eggs – which we find the ritualist licking and swallowing – will be examined, both in how it may have been experienced by the practitioner, and how it relates to other practices in the magical papyri.

No Wizard That There Is Or Was: Reconfiguring the “Coptic Wizard’s Hoard” into an Archive (Elizabeth Hane, Princeton)

Roughly 20 years ago, Paul Mirecki published the last major work on P. Mich. inv. 693-603, 1294–more commonly known as the “Coptic Wizard’s Hoard.” Adapting the work of Korshu Dosoo and Sofia Torallas Tovar (especially their “Anatomy of the Magical Archive”), this paper reimagines the collection not as a ‘hoard’, but instead as an active, dynamic magical archive. By reframing the hoard as an interrelated archive, I imagine the collection as a stable library that widely engages with a literate audience. I then disrupt the typology of the “holy man” and disentangle the archive from the wizard. Reading into the miniaturizing elements of the prescriptions, I observe the collection—not just the practitioner—as itinerant and interactive. Thus, transitioning from hoard to archive and from wizard to none restores agency to this body of text and illustrates its highly accessible features, thereby laying out a new mode of understanding this magical collection.

Wrapping up

Closing remarks and the Next “Vesuvius”: Fostering Computer Science Collaborations for Papyrology at NYU (or the NY metro region?) (David M. Ratzan and Patrick J. Burns, ISAW)

Putting together a competitive team for something like The Vesuvius Challenge—by the prize’s own advertising, a project to “resurrect an ancient library from the ashes of a volcano”—requires the ability to marshal resources from a number of different departments and programs, many of which perhaps do not have existing collaborations. The issuers of the challenge describe it as a “machine learning, computer vision, and geometry competition,” but it is also clearly a papyrological project as well as a project that could and should draw on expertise in classical philology and literary studies and ancient history, among other fields. What I am trying to accomplish with this presentation is a brief brainstorming session based on the thought experiment: imagine a Vesuvius Challenge-like competition is launched a year from today, what networks should we be building and what resources could we be developing now at NYU (and in fact in the NYC papyrological community in general) to be best prepared for such an announcement.