Commercially active monasticism in the papyrus archives from Byzantine Aphrodito
The papyrus archive of Dioskoros of Aphrodito is well-known amongst Byzantinists as an important record of village life in 6th century Egypt, containing administrative documents, letters, and poems written in Greek, Coptic and Latin by and to the local notable Dioskoros, his wife Sophia, and father Apollos. Monasteries and monks often appear in the Coptic and Greek documentation from this archive, leading some scholars to delve into the secular activities of monks in rural Egypt, including their social and economic interactions with various groups in the village. This presentation will highlight some novel analyses that I have made of particular documents from the Dioskoros archive, which I believe demonstrate that the monks and monasteries of the village were much more commercially active and entrepreneurial than has previously been suggested by other papyrological analysis of the Dioskoros (or any other) archive.
Date: 8 February 2022, 12:30 (Tuesday, 4th week, Hilary 2022)
Venue: Online via Zoom
Speaker: Thomas Laver (St John's College, Cambridge)
Part of: Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures at The Queen’s College
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScliGXA45MNWRnls4Toeywy0Tlu9jeP0Qa6-o6VaeF_XwWB2w/viewform
Cost: Free
Audience: Members of the University only
Editors: Laura Spence, Belinda Clark