Author Description

First published in 1989. Previous commentators on the Wilbour Papyrus have been daunted by the vast quantity of data presented in its assessment of land tenure in Middle Egypt during the reign of Ramesses V- data which has the potential to shed light upon many facets of economic life in Ramesside Egypt, but which has so far defied any but the broadest of generalisations. For the first time, Sally Katary has approached this important document armed with the techniques of modern statistical analysis, establishing a framework within which the socio-economic data contained in the Papyrus may be retrieved, analysed and evaluated in order to draw inferences concerning the workings of the Egyptian agricultural economy during the Twentieth Dynasty. Her study then relates the data of the Wilbur Papyrus to contemporary and near-contemporary economic and administrative documents in order to give the data an historical context and concludes by outlining future avenues of research and the appropriate methodology with which to pursue them.