Dear Noemi You have helpful narrowed down your research question to the 4th century CE. Do we assume that because you've written to the Papy listserv that your region will be Egypt, and the materials will be available on papyrus or ostraca?
In literary production it helps to limit your focus to one cultic focus, Christianity, Egyptian religion, Judaism, Roman Imperial cult, other pagan forms. Within any of those -- as well as between one or two or three or four of them, you will find similarities and differences. In addition, in the surviving religions you will find theological traditions that try to say what "death" was, and what "death" meant, sometimes in terms of a specific time period, and sometimes in general terms such as "Late Antiquity." It is not helpful to say "Read everything by Libanius (Antioch) and by Augustine (North Africa)." I would suggest starting with a series called *Late Ancient Christianity: A People's History Of Christianity, Vol. 2, *ed. by Virginia Burrus*. *The following encyclopedic examination is due to be released on September 30th: the nominal editor is a respected scholar in the area of Judaism and Christianity, Jacob Neusner, and the two volume book is *Encyclopedia of Religious and Philosophical Writings in Late Antiquity: Pagan, Judaic, Christian. *On papyri, do you want to use letters? scriptures? literary papyri? a particular Nome? several archives? Greek or Latin? anything from Egypt dealing with death? Your review of the literature in the area that interests you is what tells you whether anyone has done anything similar. For example, if Neusner's * Encyclopedia* doesn't have any articles on "death," then even the broadest treatment has probably not been done. But you still need to do due diligence and search for other encyclopedic treatments that may treat the topic of "death." Sigrid Peterson [EMAIL PROTECTED] On 9/27/07, Noemi Poget Kern <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Dear Everyone on the list, > > I have started some preliminary research for my future PhD and I am > worried in case someone else has already done the work I intend to do. > I would like to examine how people talk about death in the IVth > century AD and whether there is any link with the literary production > at the same period (similar wording, recurrent topics, etc.). > Please, could you let me know what you might know about it? Do you > have any comments or advice for me? > Thank you very much for your help! > > Best regards > Noemi Poget > > Noemi Poget Kern > assistante de recherche > Unité de Grec > Département des Sciences de l'Antiquité > Faculté des Lettres > Université de Genève >
