Some of our best evidence for everyday life in the Roman Empire comes not from Italy or even Europe, but from Egypt. Thanks in no small part due to the conditions there, we have an amazing cache of organic material that still survives which includes, among many other things, papyri.
Fascinating and delightful! As riveting as it is when writing from the past feels like despatches from Mars, it's just as riveting, and uncanny, to run across examples of people feeling, thinking, and doing things that they still feel, think, and do today.
Fascinating and delightful! As riveting as it is when writing from the past feels like despatches from Mars, it's just as riveting, and uncanny, to run across examples of people feeling, thinking, and doing things that they still feel, think, and do today.
I completely agree. I just love these flashes of shared experiences.