The Ptolemaic Pathyris Project, funded by the National Science Centre (Polonez Bis 2 program, grant no. 2022/45/P/HS3/01807) and hosted by the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences, aims to reconstruct the urban layout and domestic architecture of Pathyris, a town located approximately 30 km southwest of Luxor in the Gebelein micro-region, using archival, papyrological, and geospatial data.
The site has yielded a vast collection of Greek and Demotic (an ancient Egyptian script used between the 7th century BCE and the 5th century CE) papyri, ostraca, and wooden tablets. To date, around 1,300 documents have been published, and many of the family archives have been extensively studied, providing a unique glimpse into various socio-economic aspects of Ptolemaic society
.However, Pathyris still holds many secrets, and uncovering them requires researching unpublished documents. Among these, one particularly significant yet largely understudied archive stands out—the temple archive, now scattered across multiple collections, primarily in Cairo, Turin, Heidelberg, Berlin, London, and Paris. It comprises several hundred documents, though many survive only as fragments, originating from the temple of Hathor, the principal goddess of the settlement.
This sanctuary, with a long pre-Ptolemaic history, was situated atop the Eastern Mountain of Gebelein, in the southern quarter of the town. Excavations in 1891, along with roughly contemporary illicit searches, uncovered a wealth of material that, despite more than a century having passed, remains only minimally explored. While most texts in the archive deal with economic and administrative matters, some also contain literary and religious content.
The edition and analysis of this rich yet fragmentary material—undertaken as part of the project led by Professor Joachim Quack—will offer valuable insights into the functioning of the temple and the broader life of Pathyris.
If you would like to learn more about the Gebelein temple archive, please join Prof. Joachim Quack for his open lecture on February 18 at 1 PM.
Where: Majewski Room at the Polish Academy of Sciences (3rd floor), Address: 72 Nowy Świat Street, Warsaw.
Online: MS Teams.
To get a link please drop an email to: lukasz.mikolaj.suski@gmail.com