Michael Hahn (LMU) takes the podium at #MATW2026 with "Empire and individual on sherds of clay": https://dmratzan.github.io/2026-nyu-lmu-materialities/papers.html#hahn

> The paper investigates the eastern desert between the Nile and the Red Sea in the Roman Imperial era as a laboratory for examining the relationship between empire and individual through the materiality of writing. Its central evidence consists of inscribed ostraca, mostly recovered from Roman military forts, quarries, and desert waystations.

#ancientHistory #ancientGeography #archaeology #classics #RomanEmpire #ancientWriting #ostraka #epigraphy #papyrology

Kicking off today's program at #MATW2026 is Matthias Stern (LMU): "The Things We Leave Behind: Papyri, Materiality, and Documentary Practice Across the Greco-Roman World" https://dmratzan.github.io/2026-nyu-lmu-materialities/papers.html#stern

> Papyrus is widely regarded as a key writing medium across the Greco-Roman world, yet its archaeological survival is strikingly uneven. While Egypt has yielded vast quantities of papyri, evidence from other parts of the Mediterranean is comparatively sparse. Without denying the importance of environmental factors, this paper reconsiders whether climate alone offers in fact a satisfactory explanation for these patterns of transmission.

One aspect: Drawing on evidence of clay sealings and their relationship to papyri in Egypt to assess patterns of surviving sealings elsewhere as indirect evidence for papyri elsewhere.

#ancientGeography #ancientHistory #papyrology #classics #archaeology

New #openaccess publication!

'Rays of Language' explores how everyday written documents illuminate #linguistic diversity, change, and communication in the #ancient world. The volume offers a comprehensive overview of current approaches to the study of non-literary #Greek and related languages.

The book is edited by Klaas Bentein & Marja Vierros. It's available in PDF, #accessible EPUB, and print format (print on demand) at: https://doi.org/10.33134/HUP-34

#papyrology #digitalhumanities #linguistics

This course from ENCODE and DariahTeach explored the digital transformations in Greek and Latin #epigraphy, #papyrology, and other aspects of ancient #WritingCultures with excercises to test competences and knowledge.

#TrainingTuesday

➡️ https://campus.dariah.eu/resources/external/encode-course-digital-tools-for-the-research-and-study-of-ancient-writing-cultures

Uri #Yiftach, from the #University of #TelAviv, one of the great papyrologists of our time, explaining his work on #MachineLearning to better understand ancient texts. Among the international audience there are #Muslims, participating in the discourse.

This is an essential part of the #THEuMa vision: #Science should contribute to #peace, not #boycott.

#Israel #Milano #Bicocca #THEuMaConference #THEuMa2025 #JeanMonnet #Erasmus #Law #Economics #History #Papyrology #EU #EuropeanUnion #Europa

new paper on #wikidata and #papyrology: Sahu-Hough, Jasmine Amara. „Parsing the Payri: The Potentials of Wikidata for Papyrologists“. International Journal of Information Science and Technology, Bd. 9, Nr. 1, 1, März 2025, S. 1–10. innove.org, https://doi.org/10.57675/IMIST.PRSM/ijist-v9i1.265.

EDIT: DOI doesn't seem to work, here's the URL: https://innove.org/ijist/index.php/ijist/article/view/265

November 26th, 244 BCE—#OTD #OnThisDay Philonikos writes to Eukles informing him about a matter in which a swineherd has accused someone of stealing and sacrificing one of his pigs for the festival of Demeter

https://papyri.info/ddbdp/p.cair.zen;3;59350v #papyri #papyrology