500 Years of Writing and Literacy in the Fayum (2nd Century BCE to 3rd Century CE): Economy and Cult Practice at the Temple of Soknopaios in the Roman Period

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Martin Andreas Stadler
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 536675861

The Proposal aims to study writing and literacy in the ancient Fayum through a comprehensive analysis of one key community, Soknopaiou Nesos which offers one of the largest and most wide-ranging corpora for the study of village writing practices. The sources are concentrated between the second century BCE and the early third century CE. Nearly all the Demotic documentation and some of the Greek was produced in the village’s cultural and economic centre, the temple of Soknopaios, while the grapheion was the most important institution for Greek writing. We find clear evidence for collaboration between Egyptians and Greeks and even Egyptian priests holding notarial positions simultaneously. Despite the massive accumulation of evidence (or perhaps because of it), there has been little systematic and synthetic work on this corpus. Researchers can build upon a large corpus of already identified relevant sources. However, the project members must continue to edit additional texts to gain a more comprehensive picture. Text genres pertinent to the topic include Demotic religious sources, Demotic receipts and accounts drawn up by or for temple personnel, Greek documents attesting to communication between temple personnel or the head of the temple and the Roman authorities, Greek documents relevant to grapheion operations, and texts that belong to family or professional archives. The work programme is structured in four research areas and covers overlapping historical periods.Th Project "Economy and Cult Practice at the Temple of Soknopaios in the Roman Period" will take the natural next step in the processing of the accounts to develop a comprehensive typology for Demotic and Greek accounts from Soknopaiou Nesos. The aim is to include as many samples of diverse account types as possible to enhance and extend our knowledge of the internal temple administration. A focus will lie on the interface and transition between Demotic and Greek accounts to determine whether there is significant evidence for internal Greek accounting from the temple of Soknopaios and when and how this potential transition took place. In addition, the religious texts written in Demotic script from the site will be edited, a substantial corpus whose precise parameters have been difficult to appreciate because apart from the three longer texts that have been published in editiones principes many yet unpublished texts have survived only as frag¬ments. From these works it becomes clear how much Soknopaiou Nesos goes beyond the mere scope of Demotic studies and is interesting from a general Egyptological viewpoint, as the last handwritten sources for certain ceremonies can be found here. It is intended to understand these texts also in the light of the practical side of temple cult as it appears from the accounts.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants