As a scholar, I am particularly interested in the so-called commoners of ancient societies. Who were they and how did they live? What did they do and with whom did they socialise? What sort of relationships and activities did they engage in, and how did this affect their lives? For studying ancient histories, such questions can seldom be examined on empirical grounds, but certain rare opportunities do present themselves. The Ptolemaic town of Pathyris in Upper Egypt is one such case.
With the recent rise of Social Network Analysis (SNA) in historical fields, I made an attempt at a ‘big data’ study of ancient written sources for the purpose of studying an ancient community up close for my PhD degree. This 2-volume monograph is the revised version of this doctoral dissertation, which was defended via Zoom on May 27th 2020 and accepted by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Cologne.
Neither the thesis nor the revised version of it would have seen the light of day, was it not for the advices, love and support of a number of people that I am lucky to have (had) in my life.
First and foremost, I would like to thank my amazing supervisor team—consisting of Prof. Dr. Richard Bußmann (University of Cologne), Prof. Dr. Eleftheria Paliou (University of Cologne) and Prof. Dr. Kim Ryholt (University of Copenhagen)—for their invaluable support and guidance. As a group, they have ensured that I had specialists to consult on very different aspects of my work; as individuals, they have each helped me grow as a scholar and improved the quality of my work with their constructive comments and suggestions. A special thank you is due to my first supervisor, Prof. Dr. Richard Bußmann, who really went out of his way to be there whenever I needed him.
The research project formed part of a highly interdisciplinary Research Training Group on ‘Archaeology of Pre-Modern Economies’ (RTG 1878), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and headed by Prof. Dr. Michael Heinzelmann (University of Cologne) and Prof. Dr. Martin Bentz (University of Bonn).1 In addition to the named speakers, the coordinator of the research group, Ina Borkenstein, should be singled out as the glue that kept everything together. Her octopus-like skills and good spirits helped make the transition to Cologne, as well as the research period, easier. As did the many PhD-students and postdocs that I had the pleasure of working and socialising with. My project benefitted greatly from the international and interdisciplinary character of the GraKo, not least from the many discussions we had on various economic theories and methods, and their application to studies of the ancient word.
As for my work on Pathyris and its inhabitants, it should be stressed that my contribution builds on important research laid down by scholars such as Prof. Dr. Pieter W. Pestman, Prof. Dr. Katelijn Vandorpe, Dr. Sofie Waebens, Prof. Dr. Ursula Kaplony-Heckel and others, but also on online platforms such as the Prosopographia Ptolemaica (ProsPtol) and especially the Trismegistos (TM) database(s).2
I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Kim Ryholt for hosting and discussing my project during two research stays in Copenhagen, and Dr. Sofie Waebens for meeting me in Cologne few months before I visited KU Leuven and the Trismegistos team—as well as everyone I met in Belgium. They made sure that my research stay was pleasant and productive, and I am deeply grateful to Prof. Dr. Mark Depauw, Dr. Yanne Broux and others for their flexibility, help and warm welcome. A special ‘thank you’ is also due to Prof. Dr. Katelijn Vandorpe for her willingness to discuss my project, share her notes and seek permission to show me her copy of Shore’s unpublished manuscript of ‘documents from Pathyris and Crocodilopolis’ (held at the British Museum).
In the spring of 2019, I was also able to visit Gebelein and examine the remains of Pathyris in the field. I sincerely thank Dr. Wojciech Ejsmond and the rest of the ‘Gebelein Archaeological Project’3 for the opportunity to visit the site and partake in their 2019 spring season,4 as well as for many nice conversations in the field and elsewhere. My understanding of the site and the environment in which the inhabitants of Pathyris formed their social and economic networks was greatly advanced by me exploring the physical landscape at first hand. Moreover, I am grateful to Dr. Wojciech Ejsmond for granting me access to the missions’ archival and other material, and for always being willing to discuss the site and share his knowledge on various topics.
In terms of finances, it should be acknowledged that these research stays, as well as my participation in various conferences and workshops in Germany and abroad—including Gothenburg, Bochum, Naples, Bournemouth and Oxford—were made possible by the generous funding offered me by the DFG, as a member of RTG 1878.
In addition, I took part in a very stimulating workshop on ‘Social Network Analysis: The Case of Ancient Egypt’ in Prague, September 22nd 2018. I sincerely thank the organisers—Prof. Dr. Miroslav Bárta and Dr. Veronika Dulíková of the Czech Institute of Egyptology—for their kind invitation and willingness to publish my contribution in the conference proceeding,5 as well as Prof. Dr. Richard Bußmann, Prof. Dr. Eleftheria Paliou, Prof. Dr. Kim Ryholt, Dr. Thomas Christiansen and Prof. Dr. Katelijn Vandorpe for comments and corrections to the draft.
Thanks are also due to Prof. Dr. Richard Bußmann and Prof. Dr. Danijela Stefanović for asking me to co-organise the workshop ‘Representing Networks: Past and Present’ in Cologne, June 5th–6th 2019, and to the speakers, participants and, not least, the assistants that helped make this event a success.
With regards to the network analytical aspect of my research, I would also like to express my gratitude to the scholars with whom I have discussed aspects of my work at various stages. In particular, I am grateful to Dr. Adam G. Anderson for inspiring me to attempt an SNA study and suggesting that Gephi might be suitable for my needs, to Dr. Yanne Broux and Silke Vanbeselaere for sharing their method of exporting TM data for the purpose of SNA research in their workshop ‘From Papyri to Spaghetti Monsters: Networks Al Dente’ (Leiden, 2015), and to Prof. Dr. Eleftheria Paliou for introducing me to database theory and Microsoft Access. Moreover, I thank Prof. Dr. Tom Brughmans for the interest he has shown in my research as well as the encouraging words and valuable advices he has given me at various occasions.
For making the online defense a constructive and pleasant experience despite Covid-19 related restrictions, I thank Prof. Dr. Peter Franz Mittag, Prof. Dr. Richard Bußmann, Prof. Dr. Eleftheria Paliou and Prof. Dr. Kim Ryholt, but also Christian, who was kind enough to lend his webcam to a stranger on short notice.
More generally, I thank Dr. Kristoffer Damgaard for the support and guidance he offered me during the application process. A special ‘thank you’ is also due to Dr. Thomas Christiansen, for steering me in the direction of a research project and corpus that I have very much enjoyed working on, and for being there along the way. Thank you for always lending a patient ear, for the many hours you spent discussing, proofreading and improving my work, and for being there when I needed you most.
Thanks are now also due to my new research environment at the University of Helsinki, the Centre of Excellence in Ancient Near Eastern Empires (ANEE), which is funded by the Academy of Finland, and to its director, Prof. Dr. Saana Svärd.
For the suggestions and assistance I have received during the editing process, I am particularly grateful to Prof. Dr. Richard Bußmann, Lilian Schalla, Dr. Thomas Christiansen, Janna Lund, Jasmin Ruotsalainen, Prof. Dr. Joachim F. Quack and the other editors of Probleme der Ägyptologie (Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schenkel and Prof. Dr. Antonio Loprieno), as well as to Dr. Erika Mandarino, Dr. Katelyn Chin, Emma de Looij, Paul Gruiters, Bart Nijsten and my other editors and technicians at Brill. Any mistakes that remain are my own.
Lastly, I wish to thank my friends and family for their unconditional love and support. To my dear family: I know it can be difficult to grasp what I am doing for a living, but you have always supported me in finding my way and following my dreams—and for that I owe you everything. To my loved ones: you are both absolutely amazing, and give my life meaning in ways I never imagined—æ digger dere! Og tak.
Lena Tambs,
Helsinki, July 2021
For the seasonal report, see Ejsmond et al. (2019).
Tambs (2020).