Читать книгу Amheida III - Roger S. Bagnall - Страница 9

PREFACE

This is the second volume of ostraka from the excavations conducted at the site of Amheida, the modern name for what was called Trimithis in the Roman period. The first volume (O.Trim. 1) contained ostraka from the excavation seasons 2004–2007, the present volume from the following seasons through 2013. It does not contain Demotic and hieratic ostraka, which we intend to be edited by Günter Vittmann in volume 3.

The preface to volume 1 described the history of the excavations at Amheida down to 2007. As it indicated, after the 2008 season the responsibility for the excavations passed from Columbia University to the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. Columbia has, however, continued to maintain the excavation house library, for which we thank former Vice President and University Librarian James Neal and the librarian responsible for the ancient world, Karen Green. Many Columbia students have also been part of the team over the intervening years. We are grateful to the NYU administration for its support of many kinds since 2009, particularly former Provost David W. McLaughlin.

Our other expressions of gratitude in the preface to the previous volume need not be repeated here; we continue to owe much to our colleagues in the field, above all Paola Davoli, the field director, on whose extraordinary skill at untangling and interpreting stratigraphy we depend throughout this volume. We are also grateful to Clementina Caputo and Raffaella Cribiore for their contributions to this volume. Bruno Bazzani has taken the photographs and processed the infrared images throughout these years, as well as helping with a host of technical issues in the field; the contribution made by these labors to our texts is to be found on every page. We thank also the referees for their valuable comments.