Posted on 01/26/2004 12:59:55 PM PST by nickcarraway
SHARONVILLE - Nearly 2000 years ago a young Roman soldier wrote home, asking his father's permission to marry his girlfriend.
In another letter, he asks for boots and socks to keep his feet warm during a cold winter. And he tells how he must violently put down those who revolt and riot in Alexandria.
All this - and more - about life for Tiberianus, who lived in Roman Egypt, is being advanced through the work of a Princeton High School graduate now attending the University of Michigan.
Last fall, Robert Stephan (Class of 2001) found some papyri - ancient writings on papyrus, made from the reed plant - stored but forgotten in the university's vault. The papyri had been collected during UM excavations at Karanius, southwest of Egypt's Nile River delta, in the 1920s and '30s.
Unbeknown to today's scholars, 15 papyri collected from the original excavation had been catalogued by the university but never examined or translated. The works may never have been discovered had Stephan not begun an independent study project last fall.
Many archaeologistscall his discovery a breakthrough.
"The significance of this is that the world (did not) know that these existed,'' said Arthur Verhoogt, a UM assistant professor of papyrology and Greek. "It's an important contribution to our understanding of the Roman Empire at large.''
Stephan is spending much of his free time working with professors to translate the papyri and put the writings in context with other archaeological findings. His work will be published next year in Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists. Stephan also is putting together an exhibit of papyri and artifacts from Karanius for the university's museum in October.
"This is a revision of what we know,'' said Traianos Gagos, president of the American Society of Papyrologists.
"This collection of fragments is hard to read - private letters are the hardest to translate because there's not much background. The approach Rob has taken is broader. He's bringing the archaeologist into it - the way it should be studied.''
The work, Stephan said, is fascinating and unusual for an undergraduate to be doing.
"I'm trying to find out what life was like for the average Joe of this society," Stephan said. "I want to find the guy's social status and what his life was like.''
There was also an old black-and-white Twilight Zone episode with Warren Oates portraying a National Guard tank commander from the Seventh Cav...on maneuvers near the Little Big Horn.
Details on The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms *here*. Pretty good yarn.
The first, perhaps, of a long-lived family tradition....
Big family.
Indeed. Seems to have some swabbie branches of the family tree, too.
Arrrrrr, Where's me parrot! 
At least his hat's on straight. Can't say as much about his head. Or maybe a landlubber parrot . . .
Amazing, isn't it? :-D
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
When I think of ancient battels and the soldiers who fought in them I think of the brilliance of Patton - the heroic but unheeded general of WWII who wrote:
"Through the travail of ages
Midst the pomp and toils of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon a star.
As if through a glass, and darkly,
The age-old strife I see,
For I fought in many guises, many names,
But always me."
- Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
Yeah, but did they have an exit strategy?
:-)
"The Vikings attacked Paris with over 1,000 ships, according to the History Channel! "
Yes, and the French won.
And that's why Normandy ended up a part of France, instead of the Ile de France ending up a fief of some guy named Bluetooth from Norway.
Makes ya wonder what other papyri are laying around in university vaults somewhere in the world. Maybe fragments of Biblical passages concerning the man from Galilee?
The voice of the young soldier is timeless.
'Ma, send me some socks and those cookies I love...
Tell Dad, I'm okay, keeping my head down, and listening to the NCOs like he said...
I wish I was home, but what I do is important for the country, so I'll stick it out.
Love to all, Me.
P.S. tell little brother not to get into my stuff and little sister to stay away from those guys on the corner."
I wouldn't want to be called..."TIBERIus's anus either!
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