The project was based on the exploitation of unpublished sources from two groups:
1)the unpublished papyri in the Carlsberg Papyrus Collection, which my preliminary investigations suggested derived from monastic contexts;
2)ca. 1,100 unpublished texts from the monastic complex of Wadi Sarga in central Egypt, to add to the almost 400 texts from the site published in 1922.
Upon further examination of the Copenhagen papyri, it was discovered that less material than anticipated was directly relevant to the project’s objectives. It was decided to postpone work on this material and focus instead on the Wadi Sarga texts. This work entailed making working editions of the texts, both for data collection and final publication.
The textual sources from Wadi Sarga provide the primary information for the economic management of the monastery. The data was entered into a filemaker database and focussed on prosopographic information (i.e. individuals mentioned in and their titles/role within the organisation), place names, commodities (foodstuffs and goods produced), and wine (the dominant commodity encountered in the material). This data was analysed and a monograph was prepared. By the end of the project, drafts of five of the planned eight chapters were produced. The completion of the monograph was delayed due to the decision to prepare an edited volume on interdisciplinary approaches to the study of monasticism in a broader geographic (Egypt, Palestine, and Jordan) and temporal context (4th-10th centuries).
This edited volume originated in a workshop organised during the initial months of the workshop, which brought together scholars working on these regions from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, including art history, textiles, archaeology, and texts (Greek, Coptic, Syriac, and Arabic). It was organised in conjunction with two other projects, to establish long-term working networks: ‘The Emergence of Sacred Travel’ (Århus) and ‘Cult of Saints in Antiquity’ (ERC Advanced Grant; Oxford). This meeting was the first of its kind, innovatively bringing together this range of geographic and disciplinary specialists, providing different perspectives on the topic and allowing interdisciplinary discussion. The volume comprises 18 studies, divided approximately in a ratio of 3:1 in terms of Egyptian and Palestinian / Jordanian evidence. This division reflects the level of current research being undertaken on this issue in the two regions. While Egypt dominates, the case studies reveal that the surviving sources are not distributed evenly in quantity or type from the respective areas. Examining the regions side-by-side allows gaps in the evidence of each to be filled and new questions to be asked. The manuscript was completed by the end of the project and is currently undergoing peer-review.
Throughout the project, I have presented my findings at major international conferences and also at smaller meetings on different aspects resulting from the study. In addition to the workshop mentioned above, I organised a second, smaller workshop at Copenhagen University. This meeting shifted focus south of Egypt, to the Christian kingdoms of Nubia (Sudan). By doing so, I was able to situation the Egyptian evidence within a broader North African context and the connections and differences between the two countries were discussed. I also disseminated my work to non-academic audiences, principally the Danish Egyptology Society, the Danish Egyptian Society, the Swedish Egyptology Association, and also school groups in the UK (primary schools, for whom the study of Egypt forms part of the annual syllabus).
