Papers by Giovanni Ruffini
As one of the greatest cities of antiquity, Alexandria has always been a severe challenge to its ... more As one of the greatest cities of antiquity, Alexandria has always been a severe challenge to its historians, all the more so because the surviving evidence, material and textual, is so disparate. New archaeological and literary discoveries and the startling diversity of ancient Alexandria (so reminiscent of some modern cities) add to the interest. The present volume contains the papers given at a conference at Columbia University in 2002 which attempted to lay some of the foundations for a new history of Alexandria by considering, in particular, its position between the traditions and life of Egypt on the one hand, and on the other the immigrants who came there from Greece and elsewhere in the wake of the founder Alexander of Macedon.
This volume presents 455 inscribed pottery fragments, or ostraka, found during NYU’s excavations ... more This volume presents 455 inscribed pottery fragments, or ostraka, found during NYU’s excavations at Amheida in the western desert of Egypt. The majority date to the Late Roman period (3rd to 4th century AD), a time of rapid social change in Egypt and the ancient Mediterranean generally. Amheida was a small administrative center, and the full publication of these brief
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 2004
Багнелл Р.С.(р. 1947) - американский историк. На 2010 год - профессор Колумбийского университета.... more Багнелл Р.С.(р. 1947) - американский историк. На 2010 год - профессор Колумбийского университета. Область научных интересов - поздний Рим, Египет в поздневизантийский и раннеримский периоды; папирология.
Social network analysis as a distinct field of study had its genesis in the anthropological revol... more Social network analysis as a distinct field of study had its genesis in the anthropological revolt against structural-functionalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was born through an awareness among a new generation of scholars that structuralfunctional models failed to make adequate space for human agency. Attention to personal networkswho knew whom, and how closely they were connectedseemed better suited to understanding individual decision-making than the previous generation"s focus on groups and roles. It quickly became evident that any serious attempt to map social networks of meaningful sizethe population of an entire village, for instancewould all but require a rigorous quantitative approach. Here, the mathematics of graph theory, growing in prominence since the 1950s, provided a natural fit. With the advent of computer technology, graph theory provides network analysts with relatively simple tools for answering complex questions: e.g. how many degrees of separation on average separate all members of a network? which member of the network is connected to the most other members of the network? how densely or loosely connected is the network as a whole? Such questions hold a natural interest for prosopographers, who can then begin to look for certain characteristicsclass, office, occupation, genderand identify patterns of connectivity that they might have otherwise missed when confronted with a mass of data too large for normal synthetic approaches. And yet, network analysis has been slow to take root among ancient historians. Network analytical research on the Greco-Roman world has focused on questions of religious history and topography (Clark 1992; Mueller 2002, 2003a, 2003b). Nonetheless, the epigraphic and papyrological evidence beg a network analytical
The book is a collection of articles dealing with various aspects of medieval Nubian literacy. It... more The book is a collection of articles dealing with various aspects of medieval Nubian literacy. It contains eleven articles by an international group of scholars, representing different areas of language studies (Greek and Latin epigraphy, Coptology, Old Nubian studies). The articles contain both editions of new textual finds and reconsiderations of well-known sources. The chronology of the texts discussed in the book spans a few hundred years of medieval Nubian history (from the 7th until the 15th century) and their topographical distribution covers a large part of the Middle Nile Valley (from Qasr Ibrim in the north to Banganarti in the south) and beyond (northern Kordofan). The typological variety of the sources, with epitaphs, sepulchral crosses, legal documents, visitors' inscriptions, and dipinti on pottery, provides an insight into the richness of the Christian Nubian civilization.
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 2009
Preliminary results from a forthcoming Aphrodito prosopography allow scholars to broaden their un... more Preliminary results from a forthcoming Aphrodito prosopography allow scholars to broaden their understanding of the history and social dynamics of that Byzantine village. Of particular interest are the families who achieved prominence in Aphrodito in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, before the rise of Dioskoros and his family. Close attention to their careers will enhance our understanding of Aphrodito as a village in motion, full of competition and social tension.
Giovanni Ruffini is a contributing author, “Flavius Apion,” “Flavius Dioskoros,” “Bishop Georgios... more Giovanni Ruffini is a contributing author, “Flavius Apion,” “Flavius Dioskoros,” “Bishop Georgios” and “Bishop Timotheos.” Book description: A major biographical dictionary covering the lives and legacies of notable African men and women from all eras and walks of life. This resource tells the full story of the African continent through the lives of its people.
Zeitschrift Fur Papyrologie Und Epigraphik, 2004
The site of Amheida lies a few kilometers south of the renowned Islamic mud-brick village of Qasr... more The site of Amheida lies a few kilometers south of the renowned Islamic mud-brick village of Qasr, in the northwest part of the Dakhleh Oasis. Qasr dates back at least to the Fatimid period; it was at its peak in the 18th and first half of the 19th century, and it was the capital ...
Zeitschrift Fur Papyrologie Und Epigraphik, 2006
... 2003 passim, particularly 70-71 on the relevance of this distribution curve for social networ... more ... 2003 passim, particularly 70-71 on the relevance of this distribution curve for social networkanalysis. ... A more thorough analysis of name frequency distribution in ... Such a project must await a definitive Aphrodito prosopography; these and other promised surveys of the ...
This volume presents 455 inscribed pottery fragments, or ostraka, found during NYU’s excavations ... more This volume presents 455 inscribed pottery fragments, or ostraka, found during NYU’s excavations at Amheida in the western desert of Egypt. The majority date to the Late Roman period (3rd to 4th century AD), a time of rapid social change in Egypt and the ancient Mediterranean generally. Amheida was a small administrative center, and the full publication of these brief
Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists, 2008
Preliminary results from a forthcoming Aphrodito prosopography allow scholars to broaden their un... more Preliminary results from a forthcoming Aphrodito prosopography allow scholars to broaden their understanding of the history and social dynamics of that Byzantine village. Of particular interest are the families who achieved prominence in Aphrodito in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, before the rise of Dioskoros and his family. Close attention to their careers will enhance our understanding of Aphrodito as a village in motion, full of competition and social tension.
Zeitschrift Fur Papyrologie Und Epigraphik, 2009
The American Historical Review, 2015
A Social and Economic History, 2012
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Papers by Giovanni Ruffini