Lena Tambs

The early Ptolemaic kings founded many new towns in Egypt and her foreign possessions, but they remain poorly understood since little evidence pertaining to their planning and administration has survived. The exception to the rule is ancient Philadelphia, which has generated an exceptionally rich body of archaeological and written sources – including the famous papyrus archive of Zenon (263–229 BCE). Collectively, they paint lively pictures of the social and built environments of the town and community living there.

In a nutshell, the project asks how new Ptolemaic settlements were built and by whom, using Philadelphia – founded by Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his finance minister Apollonios, i.e. Zenon’s superior – as a case study and approaching the first three decades of its life history (c. 260–230 BCE) from complexity and network perspectives. To explore how personalities involved in decision making, execution of orders, etc. affected the built environment and vice versa, the project aims to test existing and develop new conceptual and computational methods for modelling, analyzing, and interpreting multilayered text and object-based networks informed by archaeological and written records.