PLANTS + PEOPLE Lunchtime Lectures : Among the Marshes: The Tebtunis Papyri at The Bancroft Library

The ancient Egyptian site of Tebtunis lies at the southern edge of the Fayum depression, a fertile region in the western desert fed by a branch of the Nile. Today, as in antiquity, this area was exploited for its rich agricultural production, which led to the establishment of new settlements by the Ptolemaic kings around the 4th century BCE. In her talk, Emily Cole will provide a glimpse into life at Tebtunis through the incredible collection of papyri that are housed at The Bancroft Library. With thousands of administrative, literary, and religious texts, the Berkeley papyrus documents give us an unprecedented window into individual lives lived.

Speaker: Emily Cole, UC Berkeley