The
Soknopaiou Nesos Project begun in 2001 with the first survey in Dime made by
a Joint Expedition of Lecce and Bologna Universities.
Lecce University has now obtained a new concession from the Supreme Council
of Antiquities and achieved its first season in 2004.
The Soknopaiou Nesos Project can be defined as a complex idea that developed
in the years. At the beginning the only aim of the Joint Expedition was to document
the site with modern topographical and archaeological techniques of survey.
The archaeological area was surveyed in two seasons (2001 and 2002). A preliminary
record of all the visible buildings was also done. Contemporary, other two different
researches were begun, one relating the record and study of the Greek literary
papyri coming from Soknopaiou Nesos and one on the bibliography and old images
of the site. For this last research a great help came from the Kelsey Museum
of Ann Arbor that provided us freely many photographs from its archive. The
collection of the bibliography is still in progress and it will be a long task
especially because of the great number of papyri published. In fact, we would
like to realize in Lecce an archive on Soknopaiou Nesos both digital and on
paper.
As is well known, Soknopaiou Nesos is one of the most important source of information on the Graeco-roman society thanks to its excellent state of preservation and not only for the past findings of papyri. Still it is a very rich source of information for different scientific matter. For this reason we started to imagine a more complex enterprise that can involve scholars and specialists in an interdisciplinary and wide study.
Many scholars,
specially papyrologists and demotists, have worked or are working on projects
relating to different aspects of the documentation from the site, as for example
the recent excellent edition of the Louvre Papyri by Andrea Jördens; the
prosopographia by Deborah Hobson and the University of Würzburg project
on Demotic papyri and ostraka.
At present, the Lecce University Archaeological Expedition can offer the opportunity
to all the scholars involved in any project on Soknopaiou Nesos to put the results
of their researches into a context thanks to the new concession of the Supreme
Council of Antiquities.
We are firmly convinced that in a new era of interdisciplinary and contextual
studies a wide and open collaboration is a necessity. If we could combine the
data coming from the archaeological excavations of the temenos with those from
the Geek and Demotic sources for example, we would reach a better and more complex
view of the life, the religion and the architectonic history of the temple area.
The exchange of data, experiences and competences is a must in a modern approach
to a subject.
Some collaboration
between the Expedition and other scholars or institutions is active jet, as
for example with the Centre for the Tebtunis Papiry of Berkeley University and
Würzburg Universities. In the first case we give the opportunity to a student
to come and follow the works. Beginning from the season 2005 a Demotist from
Würzburg University, dr Martin Stadler, has been studying the demotic documents
newly found.
At present, our aim is to continue the excavation inside the temenos, first
of all in the temple ST 20. We plan to publish regularly the archaeological
reports and to begin a series on Soknopaiou Nesos open to other scholars.
Tutti i diritti sono riservati - Ideazione ed elaborazione grafica a cura di Giuseppe Alvar Minaya minaya.altervista.org minayag@tiscali.it
sito ufficiale snp
soknopaiou nesos project università
salento museopapirologico
Soknopaiou Nesos Project
