At Home in Roman Egypt: A Social Archaeology

by Anna Lucille Boozer

Overview

What was life like for ordinary people who lived in Roman Egypt? In this volume, Anna Lucille Boozer reconstructs and examines the everyday lives of non-elite individuals. It is the first book to bring a 'life course' approach to the study of Roman Egypt and Egyptology more generally. Based on evidence drawn from objects, portraits, and letters, she focuses on the quotidian details that were most meaningful to those who lived during the centuries of Roman occupation. Boozer explores these individuals through each phase of the life cycle – from conception, childbirth, childhood, and youth, to adulthood and old age – and focuses on essential themes such as religion, health, disability, death, and the afterlife. Illuminating the lives of people forgotten by most historians, her richly illustrated volume also shows how ordinary people experienced and enacted social and cultural change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108823746
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/10/2025
Pages:	379
Product dimensions:	7.01(w) x 9.96(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Anna Lucille Boozer is Professor of Roman Mediterranean Archaeology and Ancient History at Baruch College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY). Her research focuses on Roman Egypt, Meroitic Sudan, empires, and everyday life. She directs the CUNY excavations at Amheida (Egypt) and MAP: The Meroë Archival Project (Sudan). She has written widely on the social archaeology and history of Egypt and Sudan. Among her books are A Late Romano-Egyptian House in the Dakhla Oasis: Amheida House B2 (2015) and Archaeologies of Empire: Local Participants and Imperial Trajectories (2020).

Table of Contents

1. Homelife; 2. Settings and communities; 3. Conception, birth, and childhood; 4. Adulthood; 5. Making the home; 6. Caring for the body and constructing difference; 7. Religion, ritual, and magic; 8. Health, disability, and old age; 9. Death and the afterlife; 10. Homelife in Roman Egypt and beyond.

Editorial Reviews

‘… a brief insight into life as was most likely experienced by a large majority of the Romano-Egyptian population … the book is beautifully written and easily accessible to everyone.’ Micaela Langellotti, Minerva

‘Boozer seeks to survey the evidence of homelife for the inhabitants of Egypt during the Roman era … and to demonstrate how individuals contributed to social change in areas such as the adoption of new technologies, religion, and culture. On both counts, Boozer’s book succeeds. Her command of the material and presentation of selected sources is admirable … The text is a joy to read.’ Andrew T. Wilburn, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

From the Publisher