The Oxyrhynchus epigraphy Project (al-Bahnasa) constitutes a fundamental field of study for understanding the urban, religious, and social history of one of the most significant cities of ancient and Late Antique Egypt, beyond its celebrated papyrological documentation. The preserved inscriptions, although numerically more limited than the papyri, provide qualitative evidence of the highest importance, as they are texts conceived to endure in specific spaces—temples, necropoleis, monumental buildings, and Christian contexts—and to articulate memory, identity, and civic representation. The epigraphic record of Oxyrhynchus spans a broad chronological range, from hieroglyphic and hieratic inscriptions associated with the Osirian cult, especially in the Osireion, to Greek and Coptic texts of the Roman and Byzantine periods, with Latin attestations remaining exceptional. Their analysis allows the reconstruction of ritual practices, forms of patronage, funerary strategies, and communal dynamics, while also relating the monumental landscape to the religious transformations of the city. When integrated with archaeological and papyrological data, the epigraphy of Oxyrhynchus offers an indispensable perspective for a comprehensive historical interpretation of the site.
Corpus
Lenguage:
Egyptian – Hieratic – Demotic – Greek – Latin – Coptic – Arabic
Type:
Boundary/signage – Building/construction – Christian/liturgical – Funerary – Graffiti – Honorific – Magical/apotropaic – Ownership/economic – Public/legal – Votive/religious
Style:
Inscription – Incised – Painted – Relief – Wheel-cut
Support:
Ceramic – Glass – Metal – Stone – Organic – Wall
Chronology:
VI BC – V BC – IV BC – III BC – II BC – I BC – I AD – II AD – III AD – IV AD – V AD – VI AD
Map showing the locations of inscriptions at Oxyrhynchus