City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish

City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish

Greek Lives in Roman Egypt

    • $2.99
    • $2.99

Publisher Description

How an ancient rubbish dump has given us a unique view of life 2,000 years ago

In 1897 two Oxford archaeologists began digging a mound south of Cairo. Ten years later, they had uncovered 500,000 fragments of papyri. Shipped back to Oxford, the meticulous and scholarly work of deciphering these fragments began. It is still going on today. As well as Christian writings from totally unknown gospels and Greek poems not seen by human eyes since the fall of Rome, there are tax returns, petitions, private letters, sales documents, leases, wills and shopping lists.

What they found was the entire life of a flourishing market-town - Oxyrhynchos ( the `city of the sharp-nosed fish' ), - encapsulated in its waste paper. The total lack of rain in this part of Egypt had preserved the papyrus beneath the sand, as nowhere else in the Roman Empire. We hear the voices of barbers, bee-keepers and boat-makers, dyers and donkey-drivers, weavers and wine-merchants, set against the great events of late antiquity: the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and the coming of Christianity.

The result is an extraordinary and unique picture of everyday life in the Nile Valley between Alexander the Great in 300 BC and the Arab conquest a thousand years later.

GENRE
History
RELEASED
2012
October 18
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
288
Pages
PUBLISHER
Orion
SELLER
Hachette Digital, Inc.
SIZE
15
MB

More Books Like This

The Culture of Ancient Egypt The Culture of Ancient Egypt
2013
Perspectives On Western Art, Vol.1 Perspectives On Western Art, Vol.1
2018
The Climax Of Rome The Climax Of Rome
2011
A History of Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty (Routledge Revivals) A History of Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty (Routledge Revivals)
2014
The Pharaoh's Treasure The Pharaoh's Treasure
2018
In Laudem Hierosolymitani In Laudem Hierosolymitani
2016

More Books by Peter Parsons

The Last Wish 2 - Cursed Swag The Last Wish 2 - Cursed Swag
2024
The Last Wish The Last Wish
2022
La cité du poisson au nez pointu La cité du poisson au nez pointu
2009