City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish (Paperback)

Prof Peter Parsons

ISBN 10: 0753822334 / ISBN 13: 9780753822333

Published by Orion Publishing Co, London, 2007

About this Item

Paperback. In 1897 two Oxford archaeologists began digging a low sand-covered mound a hundred miles south of Cairo. When they had finally finished, ten years later, they had uncovered 500 000 fragments of papyri. Shipped back to Oxford, the meticulous and scholarly In 1897 two Oxford archaeologists began digging a low sand-covered mound a hundred miles south of Cairo. When they had finally finished, ten years later, they had uncovered 500 000 fragments of papyri. Shipped back to Oxford, the meticulous and scholarly Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780753822333

Bibliographic Details

• Title: City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish (Paperback)
• Publisher: Orion Publishing Co, London
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0753822334
• ISBN 13: 9780753822333
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

How an ancient rubbish dump has given us a unique view of life 2,000 years ago

In 1897 two Oxford archaeologists began digging a mound south of Cairo. Ten years later, they had uncovered 500,000 fragments of papyri. Shipped back to Oxford, the meticulous and scholarly work of deciphering these fragments began. It is still going on today. As well as Christian writings from totally unknown gospels and Greek poems not seen by human eyes since the fall of Rome, there are tax returns, petitions, private letters, sales documents, leases, wills and shopping lists.

What they found was the entire life of a flourishing market-town - Oxyrhynchos ( the `city of the sharp-nosed fish'' ), - encapsulated in its waste paper. The total lack of rain in this part of Egypt had preserved the papyrus beneath the sand, as nowhere else in the Roman Empire. We hear the voices of barbers, bee-keepers and boat-makers, dyers and donkey-drivers, weavers and wine-merchants, set against the great events of late antiquity: the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and the coming of Christianity.

The result is an extraordinary and unique picture of everyday life in the Nile Valley between Alexander the Great in 300 BC and the Arab conquest a thousand years later.

About the Author

Peter Parsons was Lecturer in Papyrology from 1960 to 1989 and Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford University from 1989 until his retirement in 2003. For many years he was chairman of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project of the British Academy, of which he has been a Fellow since 1977. He lives in Oxford.