Papyrological conference in Barcelona (1-6 August, 2016)

papyregaliaAll four of us attended the 28th International Congress of Papyrology in Barcelona . Personally, I must admit that I had serious doubts concerning the prospects of the event. Due to expected tourist crowds and heat, as well as a previous chaotic conference experience in the same city years ago, I was less than anxious when packing my suitcase. But to be sure, I was eager to meet the papyrological community, as it was the first time ever for me in this conference.

Fortunately, all my fears turned out to be ill-founded. I’m sure there were tourist crowds somewhere, but they were not in the vicinity of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra where the conference was admirably hosted by Alberto Nodar and Sofía Torallas. It was warm, at places very warm for a northerner, but no unbearable heat at all, and there was a lovely breeze from the Mediterranean. The conference was very well organized, with an excellent venue, good program, strict timetables, and nice social events. Most importantly, I learned a thousand new things about papyri and papyrology. From a comparative perspective I might add that there were generally less comments after the papers than in some other conferences where I am used to going, but they were on the whole more pertinent. Everybody appeared to keep the discussion very tightly on the topic. Always a good thing!

Our metro station – well suited for papyrologists!

Our metro station – well suited for papyrologists!

On the whole, our team truly enjoyed the event, both scholarly as well as otherwise (including the sea and amazing beaches!). Some of us even went to see sights, such as the world-famous cathedral Sagrada Familia.

We all gave papers:

Martti introduced our project:  “Act of the Scribe: Transmitting Linguistic Knowledge and Scribal Practices in Graeco-Roman Antiquity”.

Marja presented the Sematia database, which she has created and developed: “Sematia platform, linguistic annotation and the katochoi of the Serapeion”. Prezi.

Sonja talked about some of the results of her Ph.D. project on Egyptian influence in Greek: “Evidence from the papyri: a preliminary definition of an Egyptian Greek variant in Graeco-Roman Antiquity”.

Hilla presented an unpublished Latin text:  “An unpublished Latin testament (P. Carlsberg 671 recto + P. Berlin 14470b recto)”. Handout. Slides.

Project team waiting for the congress farewell dinner

Project team waiting for the congress farewell dinner