More than three hundred letters were written by women in Egypt, between the conquest of Alexander the Great and the early Islamic period. This book sets the best-preserved of these letters in their paleaographic, linguistic, social, and economic contexts. It considers sociolinguistic questions about the choice of language in a bilingual society.
When historians study the women of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquity, they are generally dependent on ancient literature written by men. But women themselves did write and dictate. And only in their own private letters can we discover unmediated expression of their authentic experiences.
More than three hundred letters written in Greek and Egyptian by women in Egypt in the millennium from Alexander the Great to the Arab conquest survive on papyrus and pottery. These letters were written by women from various walks of life and shed light on critical social aspects of life in Egypt after the pharaohs. Roger S. Bagnall and Raffaella Cribiore collect the best preserved of these letters in translation and set them in their paleographic, linguistic, social, and economic contexts. As a result, "Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800," provides a sense that these women's habits, interests, and means of expression were a product more of their social and economic standing than of specifically gender-related concerns or behavior.
"Women's Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC-AD 800," takes the reader through theoretical discussions about the handwriting and language of the letters, the education and culture of the writers, and the writers' everyday concerns and occupations, as well as comparing these letters to similar letters from later historical periods. For each letter, discussion focuses on handwriting, language, and content; in addition, numerous illustrations help the reader to see the variety of handwritings. Most of this material has never been available in English translation before, and the letters have never previously been considered as a single body of material.
Roger S. Bagnall is Professor of Classics and History, Columbia University.
Raffaella Cribiore is Associate Curator of Papyri and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Classics Department, Columbia University.
