Baouit (2008-2018), Panorama et Perspectives

The monastic site of Baouit in Middle Egypt has been the target of archaeological excavations since 2003, conducted jointly by the IFAO and the Louvre. With activity extending from the Byzantine period preceding the Arab conquest to the first centuries of the Arab period, the site serves more broadly as a reference for the Mediterranean basin region. The conference organized in June, 2018, provided an opportunity to present recent archaeological work in situ along with the abundant papyrological research being carried out by scholars and academics at the international level. The publication of the proceedings in two parts, archaeology and texts, compares the first results of the field campaigns over a decade and the current papyrological work carried out in parallel in numerous collections. The seventeen articles gathered in this volume present the results of recent hitherto unpublished research, treated by different specialists who more often than not publish separately. The originality of this work is to bring them together in a multidisciplinary approach, which also makes it possible to deepen methodological reflection on the benefits and sometimes the limits of combining sources.