Socio-Economic Relations in Ptolemaic Pathyris: A Network Analytical Approach to a Bilingual Community
PhD student: Lena Tambs
Supervision: Prof. Dr. Richard Bußmann (Cologne), Prof. Dr. Eleftheria Paliou (Cologne) & Prof. Dr. Kim Ryholt (Copenhagen)
The purpose of the project is to conduct a detailed study of the Ptolemaic military camp of Pathyris (2nd-1stCent. BCE) through a systematic and analytical examination of the social and economic networks its inhabitants formed. To date, 21 Graeco-Demotic archives have been reconstructed from the site, which form the project’s main empirical data.
In addition to elucidating structural complexity of socio-economic relations in an ancient community, the project seeks to demonstrate how, and to what extent, application of network theory and Social Network Analysis (SNA) can significantly expand our understanding of social and economic life in ancient times.
The bipartite graph to the right shows the core component of the dataset of persons mentioned in 428 ancient texts. As is indicated by edge coloration, 20 of the 21 archives are interconnected through the persons they mention.