Village Life in Roman Egypt: Tebtunis in the First Century AD

This book presents the first detailed study of Tebtunis, a village in Egypt within the Roman Empire, in the first century AD. It is founded on the archive material of the local notarial office, or grapheion, which was run by a man named Kronion for most of the mid-first century. The archive, unparalleled in antiquity, includes over two hundred documents written on papyrus which attest a wide range of transactions made by the villagers over defined periods of time, in particular the years AD 42 and 45-7 under the reign of the emperor Claudius. This evidence provides a unique insight into various aspects of village life: the level of participation in the written contractual economy; the socio-economic stratification of the village, including the position of women, slaves, priests, and the role of the elite; the functions of associations; the types and importance of agriculture; and non-agricultural activities.