Periodic Reporting for period 5 - GESHAEM (The Graeco-Egyptian State: Hellenistic Archives from Egyptian Mummies)
Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2025-08-31
GESHAEM, The Graeco-Egyptian State: Hellenistic Archives from Egyptian Mummies, has tackled the question of the involvement of native Egyptians in the formation of the Ptolemaic State. Through the study of unpublished papyri belonging to administrative archives preserved in the Jouguet Collection of Sorbonne-University, in Paris, surety contracts for tax farmers, tax registers and accounts, the role of Egyptians in the tax system can now be highlighted. Due to their poor condition, these documents had first to be restored, and GESHAEM undertook major conservation and (re)housing campaigns to improve access for study. Taking advantage of the recent progress in automatic image processing, GESHAEM launched a research that aimed to automatically join fragments with the help of AI, which is a pioneering work in the field of digital humanities. The originality of GESHAEM lies in its unprecedented emphasis on the study of the mummy decorated casings (cartonnages) from which most of the papyri had been extracted. The pieces of cartonnages that had not been destroyed at the beginning of the 20th century but were badly damaged were restored and studied for the first time, shedding new light on funerary practices during the Ptolemaic period. All GESHAEM results are now available on the programme’s website, and the online publication of papyri from the Jouguet collection will continue beyond the end of the programme.
GESHAEM restored 42 pieces of mummy decorations and inventoried 221 new fragments of papyri, mostly accounts, in Greek, Demotic or bilingual. Most of the cartonnages and a selection of papyri have been presented in the exhibition Vivre et mourir en Égypte, d’Alexandre le grand à Cléopâtre, that took place in the musée d’Aquitaine in Bordeaux in 2024 and was a great success. The exhibition catalogue, published for the occasion but also intended to serve as a reference work on the Ptolemaic period in Egypt, features high-quality photographs of all these pieces studied within the project. Placed in the broader context of life and death in Ptolemaic Egypt, they bear witness to the encounter between Greek and Egyptian cultures in various fields (political, religious, funerary, administrative, literary, etc.). A cartoon on papyrus production and reuse, created by the Past&Curious team for the exhibition, thanks to a sponsorship by the Kheops institute in Paris, can still be viewed on YouTube, and the watercolours created by J.C. Golvin based on data from the GESHAEM papyri for the exhibition can also still be viewed on the author’s website.
A papyrus connection algorithm, using Deep learning methods, and an interface for manipulating fragments (PapyViz) were developed as part of GESHAEM and are now available on the project website for others to use on other papyrological collections and, eventually, to improve.
Finally, a monograph on the bilingual surety contracts of the Sorbonne is in press, while another on tax registers is being finalised. The texts, also published online thanks to the project’s database, provide essential information on the role of the Egyptians in the formation of the Ptolemaic state.
A papyrus connection algorithm, using Deep learning methods, and an interface for manipulating fragments (PapyViz) were developed as part of GESHAEM and are now available on the project website for others to use on other papyrological collections and, eventually, to improve.
Finally, a monograph on the bilingual surety contracts of the Sorbonne is in press, while another on tax registers is being finalised. The texts, also published online thanks to the project’s database, provide essential information on the role of the Egyptians in the formation of the Ptolemaic state.
In terms of heritage, the ancient material restored within GESHAEM is now accessible to the general public and exhibited in all its richness. The pieces of cartonnages, which have long been neglected in research, can now be the focus of new studies, and some pieces feature funerary texts that had not yet been discovered on this type of medium revealing changes in funerary practices.
Secondly, GESHAEM is one the first projects, in the field of papyrology, which has attempted to develop a software linked to an algorithm for automatic connection of papyrus fragments. The software facilitates the manipulation of fragmentary papyri and proposes joins which, even if they are not correct, save papyrologists considerable time as they do not need to inspect the originals, which requires on-site access and which cannot be carried out with a large body of fragments.
GESHAEM also advances science as it provides new sources that shed light on the Ptolemaic administration, and in particular on the role of Egyptians in the formation of the state. The publication of unpublished documents in Greek and demotic provide historians with new data, change historians’ previous views on certain aspects of Lagid taxation. Online publication, with the encoding of Demotic papyri in XML following the TEI-Epidoc format is also something which is rare in Demotic studies. This gives the documents greater visibility, facilitates searches for different elements they contain (place names, personal names, legal clauses, etc.) and thus makes them more accessible for other types of research.
Secondly, GESHAEM is one the first projects, in the field of papyrology, which has attempted to develop a software linked to an algorithm for automatic connection of papyrus fragments. The software facilitates the manipulation of fragmentary papyri and proposes joins which, even if they are not correct, save papyrologists considerable time as they do not need to inspect the originals, which requires on-site access and which cannot be carried out with a large body of fragments.
GESHAEM also advances science as it provides new sources that shed light on the Ptolemaic administration, and in particular on the role of Egyptians in the formation of the state. The publication of unpublished documents in Greek and demotic provide historians with new data, change historians’ previous views on certain aspects of Lagid taxation. Online publication, with the encoding of Demotic papyri in XML following the TEI-Epidoc format is also something which is rare in Demotic studies. This gives the documents greater visibility, facilitates searches for different elements they contain (place names, personal names, legal clauses, etc.) and thus makes them more accessible for other types of research.