The settlement history of the south-west Fayyum (Egypt) in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods

该项目旨在调查和澄清西南部Fayyum(埃及)的长期定居点历史，特别侧重于希腊化、罗马和拜占庭时期，大致从亚历山大征服到阿拉伯征服(公元前300年-公元700年)。它在系统收集和比较文献证据和考古证据方面开辟了新的天地。文件证据主要包括数千份写在纸莎草纸上的公共和私人文本，从公元前三世到公元十一世纪，在该地区古村庄和墓地的遗迹中发现了这些文本；其中数千份已经出版，其中数百份包含地形信息。考古数据部分来自1900年左右的零星挖掘和对两个村庄的持续挖掘，但主要来自Rathbone教授在1995-1998年间对该地区古代遗址进行的地面调查。公布这项调查的结果是该项目的一个主要内容。该项目涉及三个主要问题。首先，它试图将纸莎草纸命名的村庄与已知的考古遗址联系起来，以构建这一古代费尤姆地区的真实地图，这将使纸莎草纸中的各种数据能够得到更好的历史解释。第二，关于中央王国在费尤姆(公元前1800年左右)建立人工湖，显然是由早期托勒密人发起的排水和发展计划的现实情况是什么？第三，后来的罗马帝国真的有乡村衰落吗？古代的聚落模式是什么时候以及如何改变成1245年恩纳布伊西对Fayyum的描述中所证明的？

The project aims to investigate and clarify the long-term settlement history of the south-west Fayyum (Egypt) with particular focus on the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods, roughly from the conquest of Alexander to the Arab conquest {c.300 BC - AD 700). It breaks new ground in the systematic collection and comparison of documentary and archaeological evidence. The documentary evidence consists mainly of thousands of public and private texts written on papyrus, dating from the III BC to the XI AD, which were found in the remains of ancient villages and cemeteries in the region; a few thousand of these have been published, of which several hundred contain topographical information. The archaeological data come partly from sporadic digging around 1900 and continuing excavation of two villages, but mostly from a surface survey of ancient sites in the region run by Professor Rathbone in 1995-1998. Publication of the results of this survey is a main element of the project. The project addresses three principal issues. First, it seeks to link the named villages of the papyri to the known archaeological sites, so as to construct a real map of this area of the ancient Fayyum, which will enable enhanced historical Interpretation of all kinds of data in the papyri. Second, with reference back to the Middle Kingdom creation of an artificial lake in the Fayyum {c. 1800 BC), what was the reality of the drainage and development scheme apparently initiated by the early Ptolemies? Third, was there really a rural decline In the Later Roman Empire, and when and how did the ancient settlement pattern change to that attested in the description of the Fayyum by en-NabuIsi written in 1245?