Only a few of the cemeteries in the Great Oasis from Ptolemaic and Roman times have been published: Kellis (Dakhla), Dush, Labakha, El-Deir (Kharga). There are mainly family tombs, often reused. People are usually mummified. In every cemetery funerary equipment was present (painted coffins and cartonnages, painted or gilded masks), as well as votive offerings, mainly ceramics. Traditional Egyptian practices were preserved till major changes in the late third to fourth century AD. Individual pit-graves normally disposed west/east took the place of collective tombs; mummification was practiced, but many bodies were naturally dried out; funerary equipment became rare (no coffins nor cartonnages). This new type of funerary practice is related to Christianisty’s expansion. A funerary textile is an archaeological object and must be studied in its context. At El-Deir we can follow the tradition and the changes, also thanks to the textiles. The three fibers highlighted on the site are flax, cotton, and wool. They reflect the evolution of funerary practices and daily life, and their economy, and pose questions on the origin and appearance of textile novelties, during a complex period, in a specific context.

The oases of Kharga and Dakhla have been linked administratively from ancient times into the present. This chapter presents a study of the two main physical routes that connected the two oases: the Darb al-Ghubari and the Darb Ain Amur. Cairns, tracks, rock art, inscriptions, ceramics, and other small finds serve to identify the tracks and stopping points along the way. These paths, particularly the Darb Ain Amur, evolved over time, reflecting the changing environment and modes of transport that were used to make the journey from pharaonic to Roman times.

Chapter IV unravels the status and role of women in the Greco-Roman world, examining their property and inheritance rights, their level of education, and their public role. In the Gospels of John and Matthew, Jesus appears to his female followers (above all Mary Magdalene) before his male disciples. Instructed to inform the disciples of Jesus’ resurrection, Luke records that the women’s testimony was not believed by the male disciples. The apocryphal gospels, wrested from one and a half millennia of oblivion by the papyrus finds of the twentieth century, report on conflicts between the men and women of the earliest Christian communities. In contrast to the canonical New Testament texts, the apocrypha grant a much greater role to Mary Magdalene, who has been incorrectly identified in Catholic tradition since Gregory I as the anonymous sinner who anointed the feet of Jesus. The Gospel according to Mary enjoyed a certain popularity in Roman Egypt, which contrasts with the exclusion of women from positions of leadership within the Egyptian Church.

Chapter VIII revisits the primary argument of the book: the value of the papyri for understanding the social history of antiquity as well as the importance of studying everyday history in the Roman provinces for a full appraisal of the New Testament Gospels in their historical context.

Chapter I provides a theoretical reflection on the methodological approach of the study and debates the special status of Egypt among the many provinces of the Roman Empire.

Chapter III focuses on the Augustan census mentioned in Luke’s Gospel, which forced Mary and Joseph to travel the 200 kilometers from their home in Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judaea. After years of civil war and internal strife, Augustus, as self-proclaimed restorer of the Republic, reestablished the Republican instrument of the census, both as an aid to military recruitment and as a basis for taxation. The census also impressed upon its subject peoples the level of organization and efficiency of Roman dominion. Several questions arise regarding the Roman census mentioned in the Gospel of Luke. What population did this census set out to record? How did it proceed? When was it held? Dating the birth of the historical Jesus depends on the dating of this census. Information gathered from the papyri about the function of the Roman provincial census provide clues to this puzzle.

Chapter II identifies the first readers of the New Testament gospels in their social and economic environment. Who were the people who met to read and study the accounts of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, who owned or had access to these manuscripts, and who were able to read these texts? What use did they make of these texts in their daily lives and to what extent did these writings influence their own prose? Knowing more about the early readers sheds light on how contemporaries in the second and third centuries CE understood and interpreted these New Testament texts. What associations, memories or feelings did the stories of the life of Jesus elicit in them? Which elements of these accounts did they consider ordinary or exceptional—potentially contrary to those a modern reader would identify?