Found: the dustbin of history

[Viggen]

An ancient Egyptian rubbish dump offers fascinating glimpses into life in the City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish. Thanks to nearly half a million papyrus fragments uncovered in Hellenic Egyptian rubbish dumps which are being gradually decoded, however, we are, quite literally, salvaging fragments of ordinary people's lives from the dustbin of history. The rubbish dumps in question belonged to the provincial but thriving Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus (City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish), about 100 miles south of modern Cairo, which was established during the pharaonic New Kingdom and became Hellenised in Ptolemic times, but was eventually reduced to a single standing column. Most of the unearthed documents, discovered by two Victorian archaeologists, date from the time when Egypt was part of the Roman empire, and include a treasure trove of lost classics and non-canonical gospels.

 

full article at the Guardian

[Ursus]

Excellent. Further proof that ordinary people were just as insipid in ancient times as they are now.

[Faustus]

. . . Most of the unearthed documents, discovered by two Victorian archaeologists, date from the time when Egypt was part of the Roman empire. . .

Most of the unearthed documents, discovered by two Victorian archaeologists, date from the time when Egypt was part of the Roman empire . . .

 

So, much about Oxyrhynchus is like contemporary city life but with a peculiarly ancient twist. The city had its own town council, . . . However, the council was staffed by prominent citizens who had to pay out of their own pockets if they failed to meet their targets.

 

Tax collecting was outsourced to private individuals, and the city implemented a Roman version of the dole in which free rations were given to the wealthy and prominent citizens, not the poor and needy.

 

Oxyrhynchus, like other towns, had the equivalent of banks, bank accounts and cheques, and clients could order payments to be made or receive funds in other cities, too. The twist here was that wheat was a recognised currency back then. People also entered into surprisingly detailed and binding contracts.

 

All of these characteristics seem to bear the stamp of strong Roman influence. Wheat like money (and oil today) was "fungible".

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

Those caracteristics were already in place in the hellenistic period, even if the coming of the romans did change some things in the administration.

[Faustus]

Those caracteristics were already in place in the hellenistic period, even if the coming of the romans did change some things in the administration.

Perhaps by applying them to an "Empire"

A HISTORY OF PRIVATE LIFE ~ From Pagan Rome to Byzantium

(Introduction: Paul Veyne