How early was too early to marry in the ancient world? If the answer is connected to being an adult, then what is an adult? And does that question differ for men and women? Is it simply a question of reaching sexual maturity (puberty), which was older in the ancient world than it is today, … More A Runaway Child Bride
Following the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641 CE (or Islamic conquest, it’s frequently referred to as both or either), a new tax was added to the growing list of impositions placed on the country’s population: the poll tax, payable by all non-Muslim adult males. For over two centuries after the conquest, the majority of … More An Angry Tax Man
In a Coptic letter from the 7th century CE, a wet nurse Maria expresses her grief and condolences over the death of a young girl (P.Amh. II 188 desc.; edition by Alain Delattre et al., 2018). “My heart grieved when I heard about my daughter, that she had died.” Maria then goes on to wish a long … More “My milk being good from both breasts”
Photo of Dakhla Oasis by Dr Caleb Hamilton, who excavated at Kellis as part of the Monash team (for more of his photos, see his Instagram account maoriegyptologist) Life in the ancient world, before the development of modern medicine, was hard. Child mortality rates were high, life-expectancy was much lower than it is today, and illnesses … More Death in the Desert
SB Kopt. IV 1709 (c) Austrian National Library, Vienna It’s a story that resonates throughout the ages: a man abandons his wife and their children for another woman. The story could be of a woman abandoning her husband and kids, but the story on this 7th century AD papyrus is of a man who leaves his … More An Abandoned Wife and Unpaid Alimony
From the ancient Mediterranean world survive thousands upon thousands of ancient texts, and Papyrus Stories aims to relive tales of daily life preserved for us today. While papyrus is perhaps the best-known of the mediums upon which texts were written, people also wrote on sherds of pottery and stone, on wood, on leather, on … More Personal stories from the ancient past
