Personalia
Arthur Verhoogt, born in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, in 1967. Ph.D. from Leiden University. Professor of Papyrology and Greek at the University of Michigan.
Fellow (1 September 2014 – 30 June 2015)
Village Elites in Egypt between Ptolemaic and Roman Rule
Research Question
What strategies did local elites use to hold on to power in the changing social circumstances of the transition from Ptolemaic to Roman rule in Egypt?
Project Description
This project, based on detailed analysis of papyrus documents, describes how elites in the many villages of ancient Egypt tried to hold on to power in the new social reality that resulted from Egypt’s incorporation in the Roman Empire in 30 BCE. One of the most challenging changes for these village elites was the introduction of the new, legally defined and precisely termed way in which the Romans measured class and status, which was completely different from how these had been measured under Ptolemaic rule. The project will seek to identify the changes in elite self-presentation and economic activities as possible indicators of the elites’ response to the new Roman rule and thus contribute to our understanding of elite formation processes in the ancient world.
Selected Publications
1) Regaling Officials in Ptolemaic Egypt. A Dramatic Reading of Official Accounts from the Menches Papers (Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava 32, Leiden, 2005).
2) Papyri in the Archaeological Record, in: The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt. Edited by Christina Riggs (Oxford, 2012), pp. 507-515.
3) Michigan Papyri from Karanis: The Granary C123 (P.Mich. XXII). [joint publication with W. Graham Claytor and Samantha Lash]. (forthcoming)
Arthur Verhoogt on the life of Egyptian soldiers in Mare (Dutch)