Environmental change and economy in Roman Memphis: new evidence for fertiliser production in papyrus documents

Vortrag von Elena Chepel (Wien) im Rahmen des Kolloquiums «Zur neueren Forschung in der Alten Geschichte» im HS 2022.

Environmental change and economy in Roman Memphis: new evidence for fertiliser production in papyrus documents Memphis was the oldest capital of Egypt since the union of Upper and Lower Egypt and had served as the residence of the kings in the pharaonic time. Located at the strategic geographical point of the Nile as it divided into the branches of the Delta, at the boundary between Lower and Middle Egypt, Memphis was thus the ideal place where river transport could be controlled. The city remained an important river port, as well as major economic and administrative centre during Ptolemaic and Roman times. At the same time, according to geomorphological data, the Nile channel migrated creating new branches and lakes and thus new challenges and possibilities for cultivation and exploitation of natural resources. This paper attempts at interdisciplinary approach, placing known and new evidence of papyrus documents in the broa der context of changing land- and waterscapes, and of the socioeconomic development of Memphis as an urban centre in Roman Egypt.

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