Physical Descriptions, Biometrics, and Eikonographia in Graeco-Roman Papyri from Egypt

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-90-04-54480-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 24, 244 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 517 g

Reihe: Harvard Egyptological Studies

In modern life, an identity document bearing a photograph is an indispensable feature. Yet this connection between physical appearance and legal identity is not as modern as it may seem. In Graeco-Roman Egypt, Greek texts also bore “lexical photographs”: standardised, detailed physical descriptions (eikones) of individuals including height, skin colour, hair texture, the shape of the nose and face, and other identifiers like body modifications and disabilities. For the first time, this book collects the nearly 4000 extant eikones and their role in society, bringing the images of real individuals to life within the everyday biometric system in which they acted, worked, and relied upon for identification.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Karev, Ella

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Altes Ägypten & Ägyptische Archäologie
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface and Acknowledgements

List of Tables

Abbreviations

1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Scope

1.3 A brief note on terminology

1.4 The corpus of texts

1.5 Previous scholarship

1.6 Eikones in Demotic and Latin

1.7 Eikones outside of Egypt

1.8 Outline

1.9 Abbreviations and conventions

2 Identity verification, biometrics, and documentality

2.1 Biometrics, identity, and eikones

2.2 Biometrics and anthropometry

2.3 Documentality

2.4 The role of social trust

2.5 Conclusions and implications

3 Descriptive eikones

3.1 The Ptolemaic period: detailed physical description

3.2 Characteristics in the Ptolemaic eikon

3.3 Absent characteristics and perception of physical traits

3.4 Comparison with artistic evidence

3.5 Demotic eikones

3.6 Conclusions

4 Oulai

4.1 The Roman period: identification by oule

4.2 The format of the oule-eikon

4.3 Why not a scar?

4.4 Location of oulai on the body

4.5 Moles

4.6 “Unmarked” and “well-Marked”

4.7 Descriptive eikones in the Roman period

4.8 Conclusions: oule as “identifier”

5 Impairments and disabilities

5.1 Impairment as identification

5.2 Types, frequency, and distribution of impairments

5.3 Distribution by Occupation and Gender

5.4 Impairments absent from the eikones

5.5 Impairment as an oule

5.6 Comparison with artistic depictions and physical remains

5.7 Implications of impairments in the eikones

6 Ethnonyms, ethnicity, and race

6.1 The inclusion of ethnonyms in the eikones

6.2 Ethnonyms, geonyms, and “legal ethnic designations”

6.3 Ethnonyms of unenslaved persons

6.4 Ethnonyms of enslaved persons

6.5 Skin colour, race, and ethnicity

6.6 Conclusions

7 Enslaved persons

7.1 Enslaved persons in the corpus of eikones

7.2 Terminology

7.3 Characteristics of the eikones of enslaved persons

7.4 Enslaved eikones and social alienation

7.5 Typology of enslaved eikones

7.6 Distribution of texts by type

7.7 Conclusions

8 Conclusions

8.1 Findings

8.2 Ptolemaic descriptive eikones in contrast with Roman oule-eikones

8.3 The eikones as a biometric system of documentary identification

8.4 Descriptions of enslaved persons

8.5 Observations on impairments

8.6 Race and ethnicity

8.7 Conclusions and future research

Appendix

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Ella Karev, Ph.D. (2022), University of Chicago, is a Senior Lecturer in Egyptology at Tel Aviv University. She is a social and economic historian of Egypt whose research focuses on enslavement as well as Greek, Aramaic, Coptic, and Demotic papyrology.