ACOR Public Lecture and Book Launch: The Petra Papyri V

An Evening of Presentations to Celebrate The Petra Papyri Final Publications

Presentations:
Barbara A. Porter, “Behind the Scenes in the Petra Papyri Publication Process”

Jaakko Frösén,“From Carbonized Papyri to the Monastery of Saint Aaron at Petra: The ‘Last Will” of Mr. Obodianos”
In Papyrus Petra V 55 = Inv. 6a (A.D. 573), there are six copies of a gift after death (donatio mortis causa) offered by Obodianos, who is lying sick and promises all his belongings to the House of Aaron and to the hospital of Martyr Kyrikos. According to tradition, Mt. Aaron is the burial place of the High Priest and Prophet Aaron, the brother of Moses. A building complex on a terrace just below the summit was the House (pilgrimage center) of Aaron, of which we have the earliest mention in this carbonized scroll. A Finnish archaeological project was carried out on Jabal Haron from 1997 to 2013 to understand the topography, history, epigraphy, and environment of the mountain, and its surroundings. The results of the excavations will be summarized.

Antti Arjava, “The People of Petra reflected in the Papyri”
This lecture will present the people appearing in the papyri. The central figure in the dossier is Theodoros, the deacon and then the archdeacon in the church where the papyrus scrolls were found. The main features of his career and family can be reconstructed with relative certainty. A large number of other people are mentioned more briefly in the texts, men and women, landowners, officials, clergy, soldiers and slaves. Taken together, the documents open a totally new view into the society of Petra during the last century of Byzantine rule.

About the Speakers:
Jaakko Frösén is Professor Emeritus of Greek Philology at the University of Helsinki. He published his linguistic dissertation ‘Prolegomena to a Study of the Greek Language of the First Centuries AD’ in 1974 at the University of Helsinki. Thereafter, he has done his research work mostly in publishing and interpreting Greek papyri from Egypt. He was director of the Finnish Archaeological Institute at Athens from 1988 to 1992. During the last decades he has mainly worked on the carbonized papyri of Petra. These studies lead to the archaeological excavations on Mount Aaron in Petra. His research team at the University of Helsinki was nominated as Centre of Excellence in Research for 2000–2011 by the Academy of Finland.

Antti Arjava received his Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Helsinki in 1995. He has written extensively on women and the family in Late Antiquity, on Roman law in the provinces, and on the mystery cloud of AD 536 in the Mediterranean sources. In the past two decades, he has been the general editor of the Petra Papyri. He is Docent of Classical Philology at the University of Helsinki and since 2003 the Secretary General of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Video edited by Lindsey McGuire

[alwilliams]

Thanks for all your work! Very interesting history!