Title
The Archive of Thotsutmis, Son of Panouphis Early Ptolemaic Ostraca from Deir el Bahari (O. Edgerton)
Files
Download Full Text
Department
History
Description
The Archive of Thotsutmis, Son of Panouphis presents for the first time one of the largest collections of Demotic ostraca to have been discovered intact by archaeologists in the twentieth century. Rarely have such deposits been found in situ. Excavated by Ambrose Lansing on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1915–16 at the site of Deir el Bahari, the integrity and context of this find are critical to the proper understanding of the texts it contained. Through the publication and analysis of this archive of Demotic and Greek texts recorded on ostraca, Muhs, Scalf, and Jay reconstruct the microhistory of Thotsutmis, son of Panouphis, and his family, who worked in Egypt on the west bank of Thebes as priests in the mortuary industry during the early Ptolemaic Period in the third century BC. The forty-two ostraca published in this volume provide a rare opportunity to explore the intersections between an intact ancient archive of private administrative documents and the larger social and legal contexts into which they fit. What the reconstructed microhistory reveals is an ancient family striving to make it among the wealthy and connected social network of Theban choachytes and pastophoroi, while they simultaneously navigated the bureaucratic maze of taxes, fees, receipts, and legal procedures of the Ptolemaic state.
ISBN
978-1-61491-067-1
Publication Date
2021
Publisher
The Oriental Institute
City
Chicago, IL
Keywords
history, archaeology, egypt
Disciplines
Classical Archaeology and Art History | History | History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
Recommended Citation
Jay, Jacqueline E., "The Archive of Thotsutmis, Son of Panouphis Early Ptolemaic Ostraca from Deir el Bahari (O. Edgerton)" (2021). EKU Faculty and Staff Books Gallery. 49.
https://encompass.eku.edu/fs_books/49
