Texts, contexts, subtexts and interpretative frameworks. Beyond the parochial and toward (dynamic) modeling of the Ptolemaic state and the Ptolemaic economy
Manning, JG
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics, March 2006
Abstract
My concern in this paper is the historical interpretation of the Greek and demotic documentary papyri of the Ptolemaic period, the role of Archaeology in the context of Ptolemaic economic history, and the application of social science theory towards an understanding of Ptolemaic Egypt.
I am concerned with two things in this paper. First, with the economic history of Ptolemaic Egypt, and how Papyrology (in the broadest sense, to include the important corpora of Greek and demotic ostraca) and Archaeology can help build a better, more dynamic, model of the Ptolemaic economy. That goal is, after all, what should unite papyrologists, archaeologists, numismatists and others. My ideas presented here are merely a sketch, and they can hardly be comprehensive with respect to recent literature or to the possibilities (and limitations).
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