In 2001-2, the seminar will focus on Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. It will be structured around four thematic units:

1. Cities: in development from Egyptian center to Roman metropolis
2. Villages: centers of rural life
3. Gender: especially the confluence of Egyptian, Greek and Roman influences on women's lives
4. Religion: the traditional Egyptian cults, burial practices, and Christianity

In each of these we will be looking at the ways in which Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures interacted and the shapes of individual lives in which multiple cultural strands can be seen. We will work with literary and paraliterary works in Egyptian and Greek, with official and private documentary texts in both languages, and with archaeological and artistic material spanning a period of a millennium. Environmental information will also come into play.