Preface

Summary

The importance of the Greek land survey from the Apollonopolite (Edfu) nome, published here as P. Haun. IV 70 (119/118 BC), has already been the subject of some discussion in print. Papyri in Greek, as primarily used within the Ptolemaic administration, are far fewer from the Egyptian south than from the north. As a result, until just a decade ago the pattern of land tenure in Middle Egypt tended to dominate the scene, with little account taken of the situation in Upper Egypt. The land survey edited here is crucial to the reassessment currently underway. To add to the interest of this text, the date of the Edfu land survey corresponds to that of surveys from further north – those of P. Tebt. I and IV, from the Arsinoite nome, and BGU XIV, from the Herakleopolite nome. Comparisons, therefore, gain in validity and significance. The editors are happy to be able finally to present the full text of what has survived of the fullest survey yet known from the south.

This edition started life as the successful Cambridge PhD thesis of Thorolf Christensen in 2002. When its first editor left the academic field, his supervisor Dorothy Thompson took some time to assume responsibility for seeing this edition through to publication. It was only when Katelijn Vandorpe, with her demotic expertise and knowledge of the Ptolemaic south, agreed to join the team that the project began to move forward. The result is an edition that is little modified from the editio princeps but has one extra column (col. xvii) and a new introduction which takes account of relevant recent scholarship. Each of the three editors involved is grateful for the input of the other two.

There are other thanks that we wish to record. Adam Bülow-Jacobsen in Copenhagen initially made the text available to Thorolf Christensen to work on for his doctorate. He too provided the fine infrared photographs from which it has been possible to decipher the text (Plates 1–8).