Introduction :

When the Romans came to Egypt, they entered a unique province. They were faced with an ancient and very distinctive civilization. Although that civilization was far from fixed and unchanging, the Egypt of 30 BC showed broad similarities with the Egypt of 1,000 years earlier but over the course of the next centuries, Roman rule changed the province. Egypt is an extraordinary province not just because of its cultural inheritance but also because environmental changes in antiquity have led to the preservation of tens of thousands of documents. These papyri tend to be found in particular areas of the province but provide us with source material different from that of any other area of the ancient world. Instead of the great narrative historians who form the basis of some much ancient historical study, we have petitions and tax registers, letters and applications, receipts and accounts which offer us fragmentary insights into the lives of individuals living and working in small cities and villages along the Nile. This is a different world and it requires different techniques to understand it, and offers a different kind of understanding. Although we might know huge amounts about an individual or a legal process, the general picture (how society worked, what the economy was like, what the social divisions were, how did they interact with each other, with the state, how violent was their society) has to be painstakingly reconstructed from the fragmentary material. Egypt is not just well-served by the documentary material, but a large number of literary texts deal with the province. Although we do not have an ancient historical account of Egypt, Egypt appears in a variety of guises (poetry, novels, religious tracts, philosophical works) all of which add to our knowledge. the task of the historian is to make sense of this diversity and the opportunity presented is to understanding the lives of ordinary individuals in an ancient society.
Teaching will be via lectures and seminars. Students may be expected to prepare presentations for the seminars and will be expected to read material provided in advance. Lectures will introduce students to major topics of interest and provide a good deal of basic information which will provide the context for further reading and study. The lectures will also model discussion of historical sources and the presentation of historical problems while explain methodological issues. Much of the material will be either original or secondary source material. Seminars offer opportunities to reinforce material discussed in lectures and further discuss and elaborate on ideas. They should offer a friendly environment to experiment with idea, with presentation and to raise problems that have emerged from lectures, from reading, or from other sources. A variety of teaching modes (formal presentation, group work and discussion, and individual work) will be required.
For those studying this as a Special Topic, there are links to the course materials for this here too.
To support your studies, an Information Services team co-ordinated by Nicholas Lewis, Liaison Librarian for Languages and Classics, has collaborated with the department to create supporting web pages for this course. These include web links to appropriate electronic resources. The idea is to bring together the full range of sources for this course with a view to making these more accessible. It is hoped that this will spur you on to further study. To further enhance this process, we have set up an on-line e-mail discussion page which will provide you with an opportunity to exchange comments and enter into debate about the course on a regular basis as it progresses. I look forward to hearing your views and feedback.

Dr Richard Alston