Per-wadjit

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Per-Wadjit was an ancient Egyptian city ​​in Upper Egypt in the Wadjit -Gau, the 10th Upper Egyptian Gau. It is the modern Kom Ischqau and was called Aphrodito (Ἀφροδιτώ) by the Greeks . The place has been documented in Egyptian sources since the New Kingdom and was at times the main town of the Gau, especially in Greco-Roman times. Here was Wadjit revered, in turn, with Hathor was identified. The ancient city lies beneath the modern village. Coincidental finds date mainly from the Byzantine period, including numerous papyrus finds, including the archive of Dioskoros .

Aphrodito

From the information in this archive, some conclusions can be drawn about the location in the 6th century. According to this, there were 3000 men in Aphrodito and the surrounding area (which was technically a village) who ran a household and paid taxes, which suggests a population of around 15,000 people. There were over 30 churches and about 40 monasteries. There were two pottery shops and an olive oil workshop.

The archive of Dioskoros is also important for the social history of the early Byzantine Empire. There seems to have been a constant struggle between the village and large landowners. In the fifth century a single large landowner owned around 2/3 of the entire arable land near the village. In the fifth century the place had the right to pay taxes directly to the state and was able to avoid the large landowners who tried again and again to influence village life. In fact, this right was otherwise almost exclusively reserved for these large landowners. In the sixth century at the time of Dioskoros, various important large landowners tried to circumvent the special rights of the place and demanded tax payments directly from the place. A certain Theodosius even appeared in town, collected the taxes and kept them to himself. Dioskoros's father then went to Constantinople to speak to the imperial court about the case. In the 540s, people from the landowner Sarapammon murdered the local priest named Viktor and a certain Heraclios. Sarapammon went to court, but the verdict is not recorded. As a result, the place came under the personal protection of Empress Theodora . She died in 548, after which the place was again without protection. Dioskoros then traveled to the imperial court and called on Justinian I , who ordered an investigation into the landowner Julian, without apparently any action against Julian. There is evidence from the 560s that document the struggle of Dioskoros against rich landowners, in this case against Menas, who worked for a certain large landowner Patricia.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leslie SB Mac Coul: Dioscorus of Aphrodito: His Work and his World. University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles / London 1988, ISBN 0520062264 , pp. 6-7.
  2. ^ Peter Sarris: Social Relations and the Land: The early Period. In: John Haldon (editor): A Social History of Byzantium. Malden, Oxford / Chichester 2009, ISBN 9781405132411 , pp. 105-106.

Coordinates: 26 ° 51 '  N , 31 ° 25'  E