Monographs by Lena Tambs
Probleme der Ägyptologie 40.1-40.2, Jul 14, 2022
This study tackles pertinent questions about daily life and socio-economic interactions in the la... more This study tackles pertinent questions about daily life and socio-economic interactions in the late Ptolemaic town of Pathyris (186-88 BCE) through an empirically grounded network analysis of 428 Greek and Demotic documents associated with 21 archives from the site.
The author moves beyond traditional boundaries of Egyptological and Papyrological research by means of an innovative and interdisciplinary methodology – zigzagging back and forth between archaeological field survey, close reading of ancient texts, formal methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and explanatory theories and concepts borrowed from economics and other social sciences.
ISBN: 978-90-04-50026-6 (Vol. 1)
ISBN: 978-90-04-51251-1 (Vol. 2)
ISBN: 978-90-04-50025-9 (Full set)
Edited volumes by Lena Tambs
Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, Jan 15, 2024
edited by Lena Tambs, Michela De Bernardin, Marta Lorenzon & Arianna Traviglia.
Over the last ... more edited by Lena Tambs, Michela De Bernardin, Marta Lorenzon & Arianna Traviglia.
Over the last decades, archaeologists and ancient historians have slowly come to realise the potential network science — and especially Social Network Analysis (SNA) — holds for studying past phenomena and better understanding the complex systems and relationships they were (and are) entangled in. Similarly, network analytical theories and methods have been successfully applied to explore art-related crimes and illicit trafficking of antiquities.
Because archaeologists, historians and cultural heritage researchers tend to work with different source material, network data and research questions, their subfields have developed in different directions. Still, researchers who seek to learn more about the past (and present) through the application of network scientific tools also share a lot of common ground.
To encourage continued and increased dialogue and collaboration between the named communities, we aim to help raise awareness of fruitful (combinations of) tools and methodologies for studying relational phenomena. We started the initiative by organising a session at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conference held in Amsterdam (CAA2023). With this special collection, we seek to continue the discussion.
Image by M. De Bernardin.
Papers by Lena Tambs
Journal of Historical Network Research, Sep 3, 2024
by E. Bennett, L. Tambs and K. Lindén.
Network Analysis is still gaining momentum within Neo-A... more by E. Bennett, L. Tambs and K. Lindén.
Network Analysis is still gaining momentum within Neo-Assyrian (c. 934-612 BCE) scholarship. Studies are exploring different types of networks, and what various centrality measures highlight in their datasets. In this contribution, we suggest how weighted k-core centrality could be used in the identification of elite groups within a co-attestation network. The network is built from co-attestations in correspondence dated to the reign of Sargon II (721-705 BCE), and we present a weighting scheme that reflects the strength of communication between those attested in a single document. We then use this weighting scheme to identify the weighted k-shells of the network. Our results align with a group whom traditional Assyriological research has identified as part of the elite, and they show promise for further studies into Neo-Assyrian elites.
Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, Aug 8, 2024
by K. Lindén, S. Svärd, T. Alstola, H. Jauhiainen, S. Hardwick, A. Sahala, C. Debourse, E. Bennet... more by K. Lindén, S. Svärd, T. Alstola, H. Jauhiainen, S. Hardwick, A. Sahala, C. Debourse, E. Bennett, L. Tambs, M. Wasmuth, E. Holmqvist, R. Bonnie, M. Lorenzon
Digital Humanities has an increasing need for widely applicable and easy-to-use methods across disciplinary boundaries. We believe that the cross-disciplinary methods we have developed for the study of the ancient Near East are useful for the study of other research questions outside the field of “Digital Assyriology”. The article presents an overview of automated language processing for lexical-semantic analysis, social network analysis, and content analysis. We draw on the work in our research group, which aims to address how changing empires affect social group identities and lifeways in the first millennium BCE in Mesopotamia. The article places the methods our research team has developed into the larger methodological context of Digital Humanities (DH). The article presents an overview of the tools our research group has found useful in our study of ancient social groups. Sections 1 and 2 give the necessary background for the reader to understand the particular challenges related to the study of ancient Mesopotamia and how we have overcome them. The concrete case studies presented in Sections 3 and 4, however, are kept as general as possible, to facilitate similar approaches in adjacent fields of study. Our methodology and approaches are well documented and openly available, and in our view can be used on similar text materials, by other groups interested in DH approaches.
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 2024
T. Christiansen, K. Autere, M. B. Guardia, E. Salmenkivi, H. Sola, L. Tambs and M. Wasmuth
This... more T. Christiansen, K. Autere, M. B. Guardia, E. Salmenkivi, H. Sola, L. Tambs and M. Wasmuth
This short article is the publication of a hieratic ostracon (O. SES 23) from the Ramesside Period in the collection of the Finnish Egyptological Society that preserves parts of the title, the exordium, and the first paragraph of The Instruction of a Man for His Son. The provenance and the exact acquisition history of the ostracon are unknown, but indirect evidence suggests that it derives from Deir el-Medina and was acquired in Luxor by the late Professor of Egyptology in Finland, Rostislav Holthoer, in the early 1970s. A textual variant in line three, also attested in another ostracon from Deir el-Medina, suggests that the first paragraph of the composition does not juxtapose the life of a scribe with that of a farmer, as is commonly believed, but instead with that of a soldier.
A Bridge too Far - Historical, Archaeological and Criminal Network Research, Jan 15, 2024
In recent decades, historians and archaeologists have gradually recognized that network science p... more In recent decades, historians and archaeologists have gradually recognized that network science provides valuable conceptual, theoretical, and computational tools for investigating historical events and gaining deeper insights into the connections between the subjects under investigation. In their studies, they have examined different sources and datasets from various network perspectives, and applied a variety of analytical methods and concepts to study historically and archaeologically informed networks data (for overviews, see e.g.
Current Research in Egyptology 2022: Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Symposium, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, 26-30 September 2022, 2023
The Archive of Zenon, the largest surviving private archive from Ancient Egypt, contains rich inf... more The Archive of Zenon, the largest surviving private archive from Ancient Egypt, contains rich information about the lives and affairs of various persons living in Egypt and beyond under Ptolemaios II Philadelphos and Ptolemaios III Euergetes. Since Zenon had a habit of carefully storing papyri that came into his hands, and his career changed several times in the period covered by the surviving sources (263- 229 BC), the documents shed welcome light on different geographical areas and systems that he, and many of his contemporaries, interacted with.
To better understand the significance of such systems and social dynamics, the author approaches the c. 1845 texts of the Zenon archive with conceptual and computational methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA) in an ongoing research project. This contribution introduces this project and reflects on the archive’s relevance for such research, with concrete examples of how SNA can assist Egyptologists in studying relational and attribute data revealed by ancient texts and on a large scale.
A História Global e as fronteiras na Antiguidade, Aug 16, 2022
This paper asks and tests questions about ancient group boundaries against empirical data through... more This paper asks and tests questions about ancient group boundaries against empirical data through a case study of the small-scale community of Pathyris in southern Egypt (186-88 BCE). By means of studying 382 documentary texts associated with 16 family archives from a distinct network perspective, the author jumps between scales, perspectives and methods to demonstrate the relevance of Social Network Analysis for boundary-work on ancient communities, yet with a critical eye. In doing so, she analyses a socio-economic network representing the community as well as male and female subnetworks in it, before exploring the intersection between these groups. A general lack of clear divisions observed between studied attributes like sex and legal ethnic status leads her to conclude that neither seem to have represented strict social boundaries that dictated with whom the inhabitants interacted.
Este artigo questiona e testa a delimitação de grupos na Antiguidade a partir de dados empíricos da pequena comunidade de Pathyris, ao sul do Egito (186-88 a.C.). Por meio do estudo de 382 textos associados a 16 arquivos familiares e a partir de uma perspectiva distinta da noção de rede, a autora salta entre escalas, perspectivas e métodos para demonstrar a relevância da Análise de Redes para o estudo de fronteiras em comunidades antigas, mas com um olhar crítico. Ao fazer isso, ela analisa uma rede socioeconômica que representa a comunidade, bem como as suas sub-redes masculinas e femininas antes de explorar a interseção entre esses grupos. A ausência de divisões claras observadas entre atributos estudados como sexo, etnia e status legal a leva a concluir que nenhum destes aspectos parece ter representado limites sociais estritos que ditavam as interações dos habitantes.
https://periodicos.uffs.edu.br/index.php/FRCH/article/view/12943
in: V. Dulíková and M. Bárta (eds.), Addressing the dynamics of change in ancient Egypt: Complex network analysis, Prague, pp. 171-189, 2020
The Ptolemaic military camp of Pathyris, established around 165 BC, has generated a rich body of ... more The Ptolemaic military camp of Pathyris, established around 165 BC, has generated a rich body of written sources that reveal detailed information about the inhabitants and their socio-economic activities and relationships. Because the site was abandoned in the autumn of 88 BC, a large number of texts that are unlikely to survive continuous habitation has come down to us. Therefore, the Pathyrite community can be studied in detail through roughly three generations.
The paper introduces the author’s doctoral research and discusses the applicability of formal social network analysis (SNA) to ancient archive studies. The community can be meaningfully studied in the form of social networks through systematic documentation and analysis of prosopographical, attribute and relational data revealed by 427 Greek and Demotic documents associated with 21 ancient archives.
Papyrus, 2015
Papyrus, vol. 35/2, pp. 22-30.
'Based on the study of senders and recipients in a group of lette... more Papyrus, vol. 35/2, pp. 22-30.
'Based on the study of senders and recipients in a group of letters from the ptolemaic site of Gebelein the author introduces digital tools in order to unravel their relationships, emphasizing the relevance of these aids as a supplement to conventional methods.' (L. Manniche)
Ostrakon, 2015
Ostrakon, vol. 9-10, pp. 42-53
Archaeological reports by Lena Tambs
Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, 28/2, 215–237, 2019
Fieldwork in early 2019 by the Gebelein Archaeological Project encompassed surveys of two cemeter... more Fieldwork in early 2019 by the Gebelein Archaeological Project encompassed surveys of two cemeteries situated south of the ancient town of Per-Hathor/Pathyris in the area of the Eastern Mountain of Gebelein. One of these is dated to the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period, the other tentatively to Fatimid times. The third survey searched for local chert sources on the Western Mountain, investigating a local tradition of lithic tool production.
in; Season Report, 2013, R. Rattenborg & Walmsley, A., pp. 15-44, 2013
in; Season Report, 2012: Area GO, R. Rattenborg & Walmsley, A., pp. 42-58, 2012
Datasets and supplemantary material by Lena Tambs
Zenodo, 2024
by Ellie Bennet, Lena Tambs and Krister Lindén.
This Zenodo repository contains the supplement... more by Ellie Bennet, Lena Tambs and Krister Lindén.
This Zenodo repository contains the supplementary material of the article 'Letters have weight: weighted k-shells in a Neo-Assyrian co-attestation network' by Ellie Bennett, Lena Tambs and Krister Lindén (2024), published in the Journal of Historical Network Research 10: 150-197 (https://doi.org/10.25517/jhnr.v10i1.95).
In addition to graph files and high resolution images, the repository holds the following appendices and supporting information:
- A ReadMe file
- A folder containing the networks (9 .gexf files)
- A folder with high-resolution images of the network visualizations (7 .png files) and a folder with labeled versions of Figs. 7-10 (4 .png files)
- App. B, which presents the characteristics of the network Models and analysis of N3
- App. C, which lists the texts included in the data
- App. D, which tests the robustness levels of six centrality measures
- An Excel file with supporting information for App. D
Poster Presentations by Lena Tambs
The poster, which was presented at ANEE's Annual Meeting 2021, introduces the author's ongoing po... more The poster, which was presented at ANEE's Annual Meeting 2021, introduces the author's ongoing postdoctoral research, initiated in the spring of 2021.
The poster presents the author's doctoral research. It was created in the fall of 2017, roughly a... more The poster presents the author's doctoral research. It was created in the fall of 2017, roughly a year into the project.
Written communications make up a particularly interesting and promising category of evidence for ... more Written communications make up a particularly interesting and promising category of evidence for reconstructing social history. Compared to most other categories of evidence, letters offer relatively personal, sincere and informative glimpses into specific micro-histories, thereby allowing us to get closer to individuals of the past, as well as the relational ties connecting individuals and groups.
A general lack of theoretical and methodological approaches welcoming (or even comprehending) the diversity they present, has though led to letters often having been deemed too individualistic and multifaceted to represent an attractive evidence-type. In this respect, Social Networks Analysis (SNA) offers a range of analytical tools enabling quantitative, yet systematic, examinations of larger and more complex data-sets than has hitherto been possible.
Despite theoretical compatibility, the practical execution of ancient network studies is complicated by the fragmentary state of the evidence at hand. For the most part, ancient letters were written on highly perishable material such as papyri. Adding to the obvious difficulties presented by lacunae and missing text, is the fact that relevant information, such as specification of time and space, was often excluded altogether. For SNA's true value for ancient studies to become widely acknowledged, such limitations must be faced and attempted dealt with.
By means of presenting a case study of preserved military correspondences of Pathyrite soldiers on campaign in the North during the Judean-Syrian-Egyptian conflict of 103-101 BCE, my poster will exemplify the problem of missing data while arguing that, despite certain limitations, a distinct network approach has the potential to challenge, compliment and add valuable information to more traditional methodologies.
Talks and Conference Presentations by Lena Tambs
Session response to the 'King- and Queenship in the Ancient Near East: Maintaining Relations with... more Session response to the 'King- and Queenship in the Ancient Near East: Maintaining Relations with the Power Base' workshop (RAI, Helsinki 2024), organised by Melanie Wasmuth, Emanuel Pfoh and Jessica Nitschke.
Following the end of the Great Revolt of 205-186 BCE, the Ptolemies strengthened and established ... more Following the end of the Great Revolt of 205-186 BCE, the Ptolemies strengthened and established several new military camps and garrisons in strategic locations of the Thebaid. One of the towns that received such a camp was Pathyris (Gebelein), positioned on the west bank of the Nile some 28 km south of Thebes. Despite noticeable Greek influences in the century that followed, detailed studies of written and archaeological evidence from the site suggest that such foreign elements were seldom deeply rooted. Even after a military subdivision was established in Pathyris, the community formed by the inhabitants received surprisingly few new and non-local members and, for most, life continued more or less as before. In this talk, I outline and reflect on the implications of selected practices and observations, as viewed from a relational and network-oriented perspective.
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Monographs by Lena Tambs
The author moves beyond traditional boundaries of Egyptological and Papyrological research by means of an innovative and interdisciplinary methodology – zigzagging back and forth between archaeological field survey, close reading of ancient texts, formal methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and explanatory theories and concepts borrowed from economics and other social sciences.
ISBN: 978-90-04-50026-6 (Vol. 1)
ISBN: 978-90-04-51251-1 (Vol. 2)
ISBN: 978-90-04-50025-9 (Full set)
Edited volumes by Lena Tambs
Over the last decades, archaeologists and ancient historians have slowly come to realise the potential network science — and especially Social Network Analysis (SNA) — holds for studying past phenomena and better understanding the complex systems and relationships they were (and are) entangled in. Similarly, network analytical theories and methods have been successfully applied to explore art-related crimes and illicit trafficking of antiquities.
Because archaeologists, historians and cultural heritage researchers tend to work with different source material, network data and research questions, their subfields have developed in different directions. Still, researchers who seek to learn more about the past (and present) through the application of network scientific tools also share a lot of common ground.
To encourage continued and increased dialogue and collaboration between the named communities, we aim to help raise awareness of fruitful (combinations of) tools and methodologies for studying relational phenomena. We started the initiative by organising a session at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conference held in Amsterdam (CAA2023). With this special collection, we seek to continue the discussion.
Image by M. De Bernardin.
Papers by Lena Tambs
Network Analysis is still gaining momentum within Neo-Assyrian (c. 934-612 BCE) scholarship. Studies are exploring different types of networks, and what various centrality measures highlight in their datasets. In this contribution, we suggest how weighted k-core centrality could be used in the identification of elite groups within a co-attestation network. The network is built from co-attestations in correspondence dated to the reign of Sargon II (721-705 BCE), and we present a weighting scheme that reflects the strength of communication between those attested in a single document. We then use this weighting scheme to identify the weighted k-shells of the network. Our results align with a group whom traditional Assyriological research has identified as part of the elite, and they show promise for further studies into Neo-Assyrian elites.
Digital Humanities has an increasing need for widely applicable and easy-to-use methods across disciplinary boundaries. We believe that the cross-disciplinary methods we have developed for the study of the ancient Near East are useful for the study of other research questions outside the field of “Digital Assyriology”. The article presents an overview of automated language processing for lexical-semantic analysis, social network analysis, and content analysis. We draw on the work in our research group, which aims to address how changing empires affect social group identities and lifeways in the first millennium BCE in Mesopotamia. The article places the methods our research team has developed into the larger methodological context of Digital Humanities (DH). The article presents an overview of the tools our research group has found useful in our study of ancient social groups. Sections 1 and 2 give the necessary background for the reader to understand the particular challenges related to the study of ancient Mesopotamia and how we have overcome them. The concrete case studies presented in Sections 3 and 4, however, are kept as general as possible, to facilitate similar approaches in adjacent fields of study. Our methodology and approaches are well documented and openly available, and in our view can be used on similar text materials, by other groups interested in DH approaches.
This short article is the publication of a hieratic ostracon (O. SES 23) from the Ramesside Period in the collection of the Finnish Egyptological Society that preserves parts of the title, the exordium, and the first paragraph of The Instruction of a Man for His Son. The provenance and the exact acquisition history of the ostracon are unknown, but indirect evidence suggests that it derives from Deir el-Medina and was acquired in Luxor by the late Professor of Egyptology in Finland, Rostislav Holthoer, in the early 1970s. A textual variant in line three, also attested in another ostracon from Deir el-Medina, suggests that the first paragraph of the composition does not juxtapose the life of a scribe with that of a farmer, as is commonly believed, but instead with that of a soldier.
To better understand the significance of such systems and social dynamics, the author approaches the c. 1845 texts of the Zenon archive with conceptual and computational methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA) in an ongoing research project. This contribution introduces this project and reflects on the archive’s relevance for such research, with concrete examples of how SNA can assist Egyptologists in studying relational and attribute data revealed by ancient texts and on a large scale.
Este artigo questiona e testa a delimitação de grupos na Antiguidade a partir de dados empíricos da pequena comunidade de Pathyris, ao sul do Egito (186-88 a.C.). Por meio do estudo de 382 textos associados a 16 arquivos familiares e a partir de uma perspectiva distinta da noção de rede, a autora salta entre escalas, perspectivas e métodos para demonstrar a relevância da Análise de Redes para o estudo de fronteiras em comunidades antigas, mas com um olhar crítico. Ao fazer isso, ela analisa uma rede socioeconômica que representa a comunidade, bem como as suas sub-redes masculinas e femininas antes de explorar a interseção entre esses grupos. A ausência de divisões claras observadas entre atributos estudados como sexo, etnia e status legal a leva a concluir que nenhum destes aspectos parece ter representado limites sociais estritos que ditavam as interações dos habitantes.
https://periodicos.uffs.edu.br/index.php/FRCH/article/view/12943
The paper introduces the author’s doctoral research and discusses the applicability of formal social network analysis (SNA) to ancient archive studies. The community can be meaningfully studied in the form of social networks through systematic documentation and analysis of prosopographical, attribute and relational data revealed by 427 Greek and Demotic documents associated with 21 ancient archives.
'Based on the study of senders and recipients in a group of letters from the ptolemaic site of Gebelein the author introduces digital tools in order to unravel their relationships, emphasizing the relevance of these aids as a supplement to conventional methods.' (L. Manniche)
Archaeological reports by Lena Tambs
Datasets and supplemantary material by Lena Tambs
This Zenodo repository contains the supplementary material of the article 'Letters have weight: weighted k-shells in a Neo-Assyrian co-attestation network' by Ellie Bennett, Lena Tambs and Krister Lindén (2024), published in the Journal of Historical Network Research 10: 150-197 (https://doi.org/10.25517/jhnr.v10i1.95).
In addition to graph files and high resolution images, the repository holds the following appendices and supporting information:
- A ReadMe file
- A folder containing the networks (9 .gexf files)
- A folder with high-resolution images of the network visualizations (7 .png files) and a folder with labeled versions of Figs. 7-10 (4 .png files)
- App. B, which presents the characteristics of the network Models and analysis of N3
- App. C, which lists the texts included in the data
- App. D, which tests the robustness levels of six centrality measures
- An Excel file with supporting information for App. D
Poster Presentations by Lena Tambs
A general lack of theoretical and methodological approaches welcoming (or even comprehending) the diversity they present, has though led to letters often having been deemed too individualistic and multifaceted to represent an attractive evidence-type. In this respect, Social Networks Analysis (SNA) offers a range of analytical tools enabling quantitative, yet systematic, examinations of larger and more complex data-sets than has hitherto been possible.
Despite theoretical compatibility, the practical execution of ancient network studies is complicated by the fragmentary state of the evidence at hand. For the most part, ancient letters were written on highly perishable material such as papyri. Adding to the obvious difficulties presented by lacunae and missing text, is the fact that relevant information, such as specification of time and space, was often excluded altogether. For SNA's true value for ancient studies to become widely acknowledged, such limitations must be faced and attempted dealt with.
By means of presenting a case study of preserved military correspondences of Pathyrite soldiers on campaign in the North during the Judean-Syrian-Egyptian conflict of 103-101 BCE, my poster will exemplify the problem of missing data while arguing that, despite certain limitations, a distinct network approach has the potential to challenge, compliment and add valuable information to more traditional methodologies.
Talks and Conference Presentations by Lena Tambs
The author moves beyond traditional boundaries of Egyptological and Papyrological research by means of an innovative and interdisciplinary methodology – zigzagging back and forth between archaeological field survey, close reading of ancient texts, formal methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and explanatory theories and concepts borrowed from economics and other social sciences.
ISBN: 978-90-04-50026-6 (Vol. 1)
ISBN: 978-90-04-51251-1 (Vol. 2)
ISBN: 978-90-04-50025-9 (Full set)
Over the last decades, archaeologists and ancient historians have slowly come to realise the potential network science — and especially Social Network Analysis (SNA) — holds for studying past phenomena and better understanding the complex systems and relationships they were (and are) entangled in. Similarly, network analytical theories and methods have been successfully applied to explore art-related crimes and illicit trafficking of antiquities.
Because archaeologists, historians and cultural heritage researchers tend to work with different source material, network data and research questions, their subfields have developed in different directions. Still, researchers who seek to learn more about the past (and present) through the application of network scientific tools also share a lot of common ground.
To encourage continued and increased dialogue and collaboration between the named communities, we aim to help raise awareness of fruitful (combinations of) tools and methodologies for studying relational phenomena. We started the initiative by organising a session at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conference held in Amsterdam (CAA2023). With this special collection, we seek to continue the discussion.
Image by M. De Bernardin.
Network Analysis is still gaining momentum within Neo-Assyrian (c. 934-612 BCE) scholarship. Studies are exploring different types of networks, and what various centrality measures highlight in their datasets. In this contribution, we suggest how weighted k-core centrality could be used in the identification of elite groups within a co-attestation network. The network is built from co-attestations in correspondence dated to the reign of Sargon II (721-705 BCE), and we present a weighting scheme that reflects the strength of communication between those attested in a single document. We then use this weighting scheme to identify the weighted k-shells of the network. Our results align with a group whom traditional Assyriological research has identified as part of the elite, and they show promise for further studies into Neo-Assyrian elites.
Digital Humanities has an increasing need for widely applicable and easy-to-use methods across disciplinary boundaries. We believe that the cross-disciplinary methods we have developed for the study of the ancient Near East are useful for the study of other research questions outside the field of “Digital Assyriology”. The article presents an overview of automated language processing for lexical-semantic analysis, social network analysis, and content analysis. We draw on the work in our research group, which aims to address how changing empires affect social group identities and lifeways in the first millennium BCE in Mesopotamia. The article places the methods our research team has developed into the larger methodological context of Digital Humanities (DH). The article presents an overview of the tools our research group has found useful in our study of ancient social groups. Sections 1 and 2 give the necessary background for the reader to understand the particular challenges related to the study of ancient Mesopotamia and how we have overcome them. The concrete case studies presented in Sections 3 and 4, however, are kept as general as possible, to facilitate similar approaches in adjacent fields of study. Our methodology and approaches are well documented and openly available, and in our view can be used on similar text materials, by other groups interested in DH approaches.
This short article is the publication of a hieratic ostracon (O. SES 23) from the Ramesside Period in the collection of the Finnish Egyptological Society that preserves parts of the title, the exordium, and the first paragraph of The Instruction of a Man for His Son. The provenance and the exact acquisition history of the ostracon are unknown, but indirect evidence suggests that it derives from Deir el-Medina and was acquired in Luxor by the late Professor of Egyptology in Finland, Rostislav Holthoer, in the early 1970s. A textual variant in line three, also attested in another ostracon from Deir el-Medina, suggests that the first paragraph of the composition does not juxtapose the life of a scribe with that of a farmer, as is commonly believed, but instead with that of a soldier.
To better understand the significance of such systems and social dynamics, the author approaches the c. 1845 texts of the Zenon archive with conceptual and computational methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA) in an ongoing research project. This contribution introduces this project and reflects on the archive’s relevance for such research, with concrete examples of how SNA can assist Egyptologists in studying relational and attribute data revealed by ancient texts and on a large scale.
Este artigo questiona e testa a delimitação de grupos na Antiguidade a partir de dados empíricos da pequena comunidade de Pathyris, ao sul do Egito (186-88 a.C.). Por meio do estudo de 382 textos associados a 16 arquivos familiares e a partir de uma perspectiva distinta da noção de rede, a autora salta entre escalas, perspectivas e métodos para demonstrar a relevância da Análise de Redes para o estudo de fronteiras em comunidades antigas, mas com um olhar crítico. Ao fazer isso, ela analisa uma rede socioeconômica que representa a comunidade, bem como as suas sub-redes masculinas e femininas antes de explorar a interseção entre esses grupos. A ausência de divisões claras observadas entre atributos estudados como sexo, etnia e status legal a leva a concluir que nenhum destes aspectos parece ter representado limites sociais estritos que ditavam as interações dos habitantes.
https://periodicos.uffs.edu.br/index.php/FRCH/article/view/12943
The paper introduces the author’s doctoral research and discusses the applicability of formal social network analysis (SNA) to ancient archive studies. The community can be meaningfully studied in the form of social networks through systematic documentation and analysis of prosopographical, attribute and relational data revealed by 427 Greek and Demotic documents associated with 21 ancient archives.
'Based on the study of senders and recipients in a group of letters from the ptolemaic site of Gebelein the author introduces digital tools in order to unravel their relationships, emphasizing the relevance of these aids as a supplement to conventional methods.' (L. Manniche)
This Zenodo repository contains the supplementary material of the article 'Letters have weight: weighted k-shells in a Neo-Assyrian co-attestation network' by Ellie Bennett, Lena Tambs and Krister Lindén (2024), published in the Journal of Historical Network Research 10: 150-197 (https://doi.org/10.25517/jhnr.v10i1.95).
In addition to graph files and high resolution images, the repository holds the following appendices and supporting information:
- A ReadMe file
- A folder containing the networks (9 .gexf files)
- A folder with high-resolution images of the network visualizations (7 .png files) and a folder with labeled versions of Figs. 7-10 (4 .png files)
- App. B, which presents the characteristics of the network Models and analysis of N3
- App. C, which lists the texts included in the data
- App. D, which tests the robustness levels of six centrality measures
- An Excel file with supporting information for App. D
A general lack of theoretical and methodological approaches welcoming (or even comprehending) the diversity they present, has though led to letters often having been deemed too individualistic and multifaceted to represent an attractive evidence-type. In this respect, Social Networks Analysis (SNA) offers a range of analytical tools enabling quantitative, yet systematic, examinations of larger and more complex data-sets than has hitherto been possible.
Despite theoretical compatibility, the practical execution of ancient network studies is complicated by the fragmentary state of the evidence at hand. For the most part, ancient letters were written on highly perishable material such as papyri. Adding to the obvious difficulties presented by lacunae and missing text, is the fact that relevant information, such as specification of time and space, was often excluded altogether. For SNA's true value for ancient studies to become widely acknowledged, such limitations must be faced and attempted dealt with.
By means of presenting a case study of preserved military correspondences of Pathyrite soldiers on campaign in the North during the Judean-Syrian-Egyptian conflict of 103-101 BCE, my poster will exemplify the problem of missing data while arguing that, despite certain limitations, a distinct network approach has the potential to challenge, compliment and add valuable information to more traditional methodologies.
This paper discusses the human aspect of computational approaches like SNA and the implications our choices have on the modelling, analysis, and interpretation of network data. For the purpose, the author gives concrete examples from 1-mode, 2-mode and 3-mode networks built and studied as part of her ongoing research project on the Zenon archive (3rd cent. BCE).
Even with aid from computational approaches like Social Network Analysis (SNA), the researcher is, however, heavily involved in the research process. As an example, this talk discusses the significance of the researcher’s choice to either exclude or include unnamed people and places while collecting data from the ancient sources. After introducing my ongoing research project, I will compare social networks with and without such unnamed actors, and reflect on the ways in which this choice affects the questions one can ask, and the conclusions one can draw.
The subfield of SNA originated in sociology and anthropology in the 1930s but has later evolved to encompass a range of conceptual and computational tools that are not field specific. Importantly, aspects of (S)NA have also been successfully utilised to study ancient material, and the variation in themes and methodologies explored in such studies testify to the applicability and relevance of network analysis for studying the past as well as the present.
With this paper, the author introduces the key concepts of formal network analysis, focusing on what it is, how it works and why we should care. In doing so, she explains the main principles of SNA with concrete examples from her own research and stresses the diverse ways in which archaeologists and ancient historians have already used network analysis to gain a better understanding of the ancient world.
To administer his official and private affairs, Apollonios – like the king – relied on a complicated network of allies. One of the most important persons in Apollonios’ inner circle was our Zenon. As such, the archive in question offers unique insights into the functioning and particularities of this complex and dynamic machinery.
The texts reveal that Zenon’s responsibilities changed numerous times, but also that he remained a thrusted agent of Apollonios’ until Ptolemaios III Euergetes came to power and Apollonios disappeared from history (c. 246 BCE). Even after Zenon stopped working for Apollonios, he kept adding documents to his collection of texts, now as a private person living near Philadelphia but with businesses spread all over the Arsinoite nome.
Although Zenon seems to have grown old in Egypt, he only settled there late in his life. He was born in Kaunos in Caria and when he first appears in history, he was traveling as Apollonios’ private agent in the Levant. Among the earliest documents are thus contracts and reports about businesses, sales and gifts sent between places, letters about outstanding debts and requests for travel arrangements, accounts and lists of payments with information about planned trips and the people involved in them, etc. Since several attested individuals and locations reappear in more than one document, the sources and information they reveal can be meaningfully conceptualised and modeled as k-partite networks.
The current paper discusses how formal methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA) can be fruitfully applied to the study of ancient texts. By means of a case study of the c. 40 earliest manuscripts associated with this archive, the author demonstrates her approach to studying socio-economic relationships and connectivity in the Zenon papyri. In doing so, she maps, visualises and analyses concrete examples of animals, things and people moving between and within regions in the Levant c. 261-258 BCE.
During her recent PhD, the author extracted prosopographical, attribute and relational data from Greek and Demotic document associated with 21 ancient archives from Pathyris (Gebelein) in Upper Egypt, and analysed the retrieved data as social network models. Utilising conceptual and digital tools offered by the network analytical software Gephi, she thereby demonstrated that aspects of SNA can be fruitfully applied to explore socio-economic behavioural patterns in this small-scale community.
Soon, the author will join the Centre of Excellence in Ancient Near Eastern Empires (ANEE) to study a much larger dataset – the so-called Archive of Zenon – from a distinct network perspective. Although the larger part of the talk will present the methodological approach and selected networks that are based on the Pathyris material, it will thus end with a brief introduction to the project she is about to initiate at the University of Helsinki.
Because several individuals are attested in more than one text that are associated with 21 reconstructed ancient archives from the site, the archives can be meaningfully studied collectively and the community conceptualised and analysed in the form of social networks. By shifting focus from the actors to the relation they have to one another, formal Social Network Analysis (SNA) enables behavioural patterns to be described, measured and studied with the help of digital tools.
The talk presents some of the main results of the author’s PhD project by focusing on the socio-economic behaviour of selected individuals and groups within this small-scale community as revealed through the application of SNA to a corpus of c. 425 ancient documents written in the Greek and Demotic languages.
Whereas the material holds an unusual potential for the interplay between social and economic spheres in an ancient community to be studied on the basis of rich empirical data, Social Network Analysis (SNA) offers appropriate conceptual and methodological tools for doing so. By means of transforming prosopographical and relational data retrieved from 428 ancient text into network models, the complexity of the dataset can be tackled and the dataset analysed and formally measured. On the level of the whole network, specific groups and individual actors alike, this allows for correlations between recorded attributes (woman, soldier, non-local, etc.), network position and the quality of recorded ties to be tested against known economic activities, thereby elucidating patterns of interpersonal connectivity and economic behaviour in Ptolemaic Pathyris.
On the one hand, network analytical software like Gephi are interactive research tools that allows the researcher to conduct big data studies; on the other, they are visualization tools that can convert relatively simple nodes- and edge-lists into powerful network graphs. While they can significantly increase the readability of complex datasets, there is a risk that some things are lost in translation. The paper introduces the site and material under examination, and critically discusses the usefulness and challenges of representing past networks and socio-economic relationships as graphs and tables.
Social Network Analysis (SNA) offers a range of conceptual and digital tools for tackling the complexity and diversity of the source material. By means of modelling attested persons as nodes and relational information as edges, the project examines what the structural composition and network density reveal about life in this settlement and the influence of a person’s or group’s network position for various types of social and economic behaviours. In combination with other methods, SNA allows the significance of personal relations and social status in this ancient community to be studied on the basis of empirical data.
The talk critically evaluates the usability and relevance of network tools for studying ancient Egyptian texts. In doing so, the validity of selected results will be discussed by means of comparing observations resulting from the network analysis with interpretations reached through alternative methodological approaches.
On the basis of c. 425 Greek and Demotic text, the current project applies formal network analysis to identify network characteristics of the community and examine the significance of individuals’ and groups’ network positions for their participation in socio-economic activities.
The talk discusses the applicability of Social Network Analysis through examples drawn from the Pathyris material. In doing so, it critically evaluates the relevance and validity of employing conceptual and computational network analytical methods for studying the past.
The research project here presented, aims to study social and economic life in Ptolemaic Pathyris through a distinct network approach. It centres on its individual members and their interrelations as revealed by c. 450 texts associated with 21 ancient archives from the site. Particularly relevant here, is Social Network Analysis (SNA). By means of mapping a significant number of specific socio-economic relations in a systematic bottom-up approach, SNA can tackle the diversity of the source material and enable the relational data contained in the texts to be studied on an inter-archival, as well as an archive-by-archive basis.
SNA offers new perspectives and methodological tools for organizing, analyzing and interpreting attributed relational data. In order to make sense of evolving patterns and observations, their meaning must though be read in relation to the larger picture. The talk argues for a balanced relation between emic and etic perspectives by highlighting (1) the project’s applied method of attributing node and edge entries with categorizing labels and (2) subsequent contextualisation of the networks in time and place. In both cases, pros and cons of emic and etic approaches are critically discussed.
Network analysis is gradually gaining momentum in the fields of history and archaeology. A plethora of recent studies is demonstrating that it can advance significantly interpretation of how people, places and ideas were connected and interacted in the past. The aim of this workshop is to develop further the discussion of the potential and limitations of network approaches by placing the focus on representations of networks in the past and present.
Departing from a broad interest in approaches to network analysis, the workshop specifically explores questions such as: How are various types of networks displayed on ancient monuments, represented on the ground, and established in written documents? Which effect on our understanding of the past has the modern translation of these networks into graphs, tables and words? What are the theoretical ramifications of modelling representations of networks? And how can network models supplement other methodologies in different fields of research?
The workshop will be held at the University of Cologne, beginning with a key note lecture by Prof. Dr. Danijela Stefanović on 5th June and continuing with a series of presentations and discussions on 6th June. It offers an interdisciplinary platform for the exchange of ideas among researchers working on different subject matters, time periods, geographical areas and source materials. The workshop is designed to fuel discussions of how network data can be efficiently represented in various formats and communicated to different audiences.
The conference language is English.
In recent years, this research approach has evolved independently at several institutions exploring ancient Egypt. We were very pleased to host most of these scholars at a joint meeting and offer them an opportunity to present and communicate their individual approaches, methods, points of view and observations. The contributions in this volume, originally presented at a workshop in Prague in September 2018, cover selected periods of ancient Egypt (the Old Kingdom, the New Kingdom, the Greco-Roman Period). Cyber-Egyptology, a new area of research in Egyptology, appears to be a justified approach with its own methodology, philosophy and a vast potential to answer complex questions relating to this fascinating civilisation and its diachronic dynamics. Moreover, this method of cyber-research can be applied universally across most archaeological and historical specialisations.