Item of the week

Over the course of the last two months, being a member of the Karanis Collaboratory Project has allowed me the opportunity to work closely with professors and experts in classical archaeology, anthropology, and papyrology (just to name a few). I’ve also had the chance to begin to explore the inner workings of how museums are […]

The dry climate of ancient Egypt allowed the preservation of an incomparable wealth of organic material. Working on plant remains from Karanis is an archaeobotanist’s paradise: I am not used to such exceptional preservation! I am also very much surprised by the attention paid by the excavators, almost a century ago, to the detailed collection

During the course of the past several weeks, I have been investigating granary C65 at Karanis. My work has involved using plans, drawings, preliminary reports, archival photographs, and objects housed in the Kelsey Museum to study the complexity of this building. How can we understand C65 within the wider context of other granaries in the

Alexandra Creola and Mollie Fox are recording and photographing three cups (or bowls) in the collections of the Kelsey Museum. These ceramic artifacts were found in the same room in Granary C65. They offer evidence of different clays, surface treatments, and production methods in vessels of similar size. Examination of artifacts from this structure is just beginning … many

Emily Lime and Caitlin Clerkin look at wooden jars in the collections of the Kelsey Museum. Several of these jars were found in House C137. They hope to learn something about the wooden material, manufacturing techniques, their use, and contents.  

This week I have been working on reading and interpreting the papyrus fragment pictured below (P.Mich.inv. 5451f), which was found along with a number of other objects outside the east wall of C65.

In my work within the Karanis Collaboratory, I’ve focused on material from house C137. I’ve been working to unite information from object autopsy, object records, archival photographs, and plans, with the goals of (a) better understanding the finds (and their contexts) from this house and (b) creating more complete records of C137 and its contents, in order to better

Sebastian Encina shows Mollie Fox and Emily Lime a color reproduction of a mural found in one of the structures (C65).