ABSTRACT
Most papyrologists would probably nod unquestioned assent to the description of the field given by an avowed outsider, Bruce Frier, in his commentary on the seminar on new approaches to the papyri described in chapter 4: “a cautious reconstruction that proceeds document by document, with each new papyrus first subjected to careful analysis as an artefact in its own right, and then linked to the corpus of other surviving papyri.”1 This method is described by Frier as “antiquarian,” but he is quick to say both that this is not a criticism of the field and that antiquarian methods must remain central to the field because of the nature of the surviving source material. To it, however, he contrasts interest in a newer set of questions, coming into ancient history proximately from medieval and modern history (especially via the historians of the Annales school) and ultimately from the social sciences. These include social structures, behavioral patterns, and ideological currents.
