Alan K. Bowman’s research while affiliated with University of Oxford and other places

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Publications (15)


Introduction: The Epigraphy of Ptolemaic EgyptThe Epigraphy of Ptolemaic Egypt
  • Chapter

October 2020

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29 Reads

Alan Bowman

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Charles Crowther

This introduction discusses the character of the different epigraphic traditions in Egypt under the Ptolemies (332–30 BC), Greek and Egyptian, in both Hieroglyphic and Demotic. The book is intended as a complement to the complete collection of editions of these monuments. It summarizes the way in which the following chapters discuss and analyse many aspects of the format, content, and presentation of these Greek and bilingual or trilingual inscriptions. It sketches some of the main themes addressed by the authors and indicates what value the collection adds to our appreciation of the cultural and monumental landscape in which the Greeks absorbed features of the indigenous religion and the Egyptians adapted to the introduction of dynastic royal cult. Rather than offering novel arguments or radical innovations in interpreting the monuments, the chapters in this volume contribute to a deepening understanding of the social and cultural complexities of this bicultural landscape.


The Epigraphy of Ptolemaic Egypt
  • Article
  • Full-text available

October 2020

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111 Reads

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3 Citations

Alan Bowman

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Charles Crowther

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Jane Masséglia

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[...]

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Simon Hornblower

The book contains twelve chapters, by various authors, discussing aspects of the Greek and Egyptian bilingual and trilingual inscriptions from Egypt during the Ptolemaic period, from the conquest by Alexander the Great (332 bc) to the death of Kleopatra VII (30 bc). It is intended as a complement to the publication of the full texts, with up-to-date commentaries and images, of about 650 inscriptions on stone. These include major decrees of priestly colleges, such as the Rosetta Stone, and a great variety of religious and secular monuments from the whole of Egypt, from Alexandria to Philae. The subjects covered include the latest technologies for digital imaging of stone inscriptions, the character of Egyptian monuments with Greek text, the survival and collection of bilingual monuments in the nineteenth century through excavation and the antiquities trade, religious dedications from Alexandria and elsewhere, the civic government of Greek foundations and public associations, the role of the military in public epigraphy, verse epigrams, onomastics, and palaeography. Overall, the collection offers a comprehensive review of the social, religious, and cultural context of the great inscribed monuments of the Ptolemaic dynasty which are key sources for understanding the coexistence of two different cultures and the impact of Ptolemaic rule and Greek immigration in Egypt.

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R. S. Bagnall and B. W. Frier, The Demography of Roman Egypt (Cambridge studies in population, economy and society in past time XXIII). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. xix + 354, 22 graphs, 21 tables, ISBN 0-5214-6123-5. £35.00/US$49.95.

November 1995

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29 Reads

The Journal of Roman Studies

BagnallR. S. and FrierB. W., The Demography of Roman Egypt (Cambridge studies in population, economy and society in past time XXIII). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. xix + 354, 22 graphs, 21 tables, ISBN 0-5214-6123-5. £35.00/US$49.95. - Volume 85 - Alan K. Bowman




Tav

October 1993

The Classical Review

Tav - CrinitiNicola: La Tabula Alimentaria di Veleia (Introduzione storica, edizione critica, traduzione, indici onomastici e toponimici, bibliografia Veleiate). (Fonti e Studi, Serie Prima, 14.) Pp. 345; 12 photographs, 1 map. Parma: Presso La Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Province Parmensi, 1991. - Volume 43 Issue 2 - Alan K. Bowman


Cities and Administration in Roman Egypt

November 1992

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43 Reads

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101 Citations

The Journal of Roman Studies

These two inscriptions come from the precinct of the temple of Hathor at Denderah (Tentyra), capital of the Tentyrite nome, just north of Thebes in Upper Egypt. The impressive remains of the complex are mostly late Ptolemaic and Roman (re)constructions, but they look Pharaonic and suggest social and cultural continuity across the centuries. The inscriptions, however, illustrate the radical changes in communal organization and administration which the Romans introduced. These changes form the subject of this paper. The first inscription dates to 12 B.C., but is almost entirely in the pre-Roman tradition. It is a trilingual dedication with the primary version in demotic (i.e. Egyptian). Augustus is god, implicitly Pharaoh, and lacks his Roman titles. The strategos (governor of the nome) Ptolemaios gives himself obsolete court titles and a string of local priesthoods. Ptolemaios came from a family which had hereditarily held local priesthoods (and probably continued to hold them after him), and his father Panas had preceded him as strategos of the Tentyrite nome, retaining office through the Roman annexation. On this occasion Ptolemaios' dedication was personal, but other dedications show him acting, like his father, as the head of local cult associations. Ptolemaios is last attested as strategos in 5 B.C. Five years later, our second inscription, which dates to 23 September A.D. I, reveals a very different situation. The dedication was made on Augustus' birthday, and was finely inscribed in Greek only. The strategos Tryphon, whose name suggests an Alexandrian sent up to the Tentyrite nome, figures only as an element of the official dating clause standard throughout Roman Egypt; he is just a cog in the Roman administrative machine. The dedication was made corporately by the local community, structured, as we will see, on the new Roman model.


A Military Strength Report from Vindolanda

November 1991

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37 Reads

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48 Citations

The Journal of Roman Studies

The text here published has a claim to be the most important military document ever discovered in Britain. It was found during the 1988 season of excavation of the pre-Hadrianic area at Vindolanda. The archaeological context in which it was found is the earliest level in which tablets are present; it was located in the ditch by the west wall of the earliest phase of the fort, beneath four successive buildings of the later periods. The ditch appears to have been filled by A.D. 90/92 and the tablet is therefore most probably to be dated c. A.D. 90 (unless it was part of a deposit of rubbish put into the Period I ditch by the builders of the Period II structures). It would thus reflect the situation at Vindolanda only a few years after Agricola's departure from Britain, presumably just before the enlargement of the fort which made this area the site of the praetorium in the southern sector of the central range of buildings. The small amount of relevant evidence from other writing-tablets confuses rather than clarifies the picture. The commanding officer named in the strength report is Iulius Verecundus and there are five or six other texts associated with a man named Verecundus who may or may not be the same person (in only one case is the gentilicium (Iulius) preserved).



Citations (7)


... KEYWORDS: Environment; Wall art; Egypt; Iconography; Landscape Introducción […] works of art so perfectly reflect their age, we should also add that like mirrors they will reflect different facts about the age according to the way we turn them, or the standpoint we adopt, not to mention the tiresome tendency of mirrors to throw back our own image (Gombrich 1979, p. 134) A partir del inagotable deseo de conocimiento, tomaron forma sentimientos, emociones y pensamientos, alimentados por la creciente curiosidad de los antiguos viajeros en la tierra de Egipto y ampliamente expresados en los textos de los autores antiguos (Bowman, 1989). El paisaje egipcio se convirtió en la encarnación de la abundancia y la prosperidad, una tierra de vegetación exuberante y fauna característica, así como el escenario de rituales y costumbres tan diferentes que llegaron a ser, en ocasiones, fuente de crítica (Capriotti Vittozzi, 2006). ...

Reference:

Picta nilotica romana en contexto. Significados y funcionalidades de las pinturas nilóticas romanas en los contextos arqueológicos
Egypt after the Pharaohs. 332 BC-AD 642, from Alexander to the Arab Conquest
  • Citing Article
  • January 1990

The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology

... Die gesetzgeberischen Aktivitäten des 4.Jahrhunderts 21 bezeugen sowohl die vielfältigen Formen der Manipulation von Münzen wie die wachsende Bedeutung des Problems. Im Vergleich zum Rechtszustand der hohen Kaiserzeit 22 geht nun mit der Ausweitung des Gegenstandsbereiches auch eine Verschärfung der Strafbestimmungen einher: Im Jahre 326 wird auch die Kupferprägung als kaiserliches Privileg unter staatlichen Schutz gestellt, 23 die Strafen für unlautere Praktiken von Münzbeamten werden verschärft, 24 die Entsilberung der Majorinen wird ebenso untersagt 25 wie die Prägung im Privatbesitz befindlichen Goldes in staatlichen Offizinen, 26 und Bronzegeld darf von Kaufleuten nur in begrenzten Mengen auf Reisen mitgeführt werden. 27 Schon dieser unvollständige Katalog kaiserlicher Maßnahmen dokumentiert die zunehmende staatliche Aufmerksamkeit, die in dem Gesetz Theodosius' I. aus dem Jahr 389 gipfelt, welches die Münzfälschung zum Hochverrat erklärt. ...

Landholding in the Hermopolite Nome in the Fourth Century A.D.
  • Citing Article
  • November 1985

The Journal of Roman Studies

... The imperial administration, however, included much more than just the province direction performed by the imperial governors and their staff. This is how farming out of provincial taxes' collection, which had been another major source of abuses, corruption and plundering, also became reformed by both the local administrations and the imperial agents (Bowman & Rathbone, 1992). 15 As discussed in Sect. ...

Cities and Administration in Roman Egypt
  • Citing Article
  • November 1992

The Journal of Roman Studies

... For archaeologists, evidence of the past, whether artefact, site, or landscape, is often partial and provides only a glimpse into what life was like for ancient people. In rare instances, environments are uncovered that provide extraordinary preservation of past structures and artefacts, such as the Vindolanda tablets (Bowman and Thomas 1984) or, more recently, the Bronze Age buildings at the site of Must Farm (Knight et al. 2019). However, even in these ideal conditions, this evidence only partially represents their previous form, making it difficult for people in the present to comprehend what daily life may have been like for people in the past. ...

New Writing-Tablets from Vindolanda
  • Citing Article
  • November 1996

Britannia