From the Nile to the Lys

At the beginning of the 20th century, three major papyrological archives were found in the Egyptian village of Kôm-Išqaw, also known in ancient sources as the village of Aphrodite. In 1905, during some restoration works in a private house, a crevice in a wall disclosed a large number of papyrus scrolls. The archaeological excavations that followed this fortuitous discovery brought to light a jar full of papyri. The private archive of Dioscorus of Aphrodite was then discovered. The approximately 650 documents that compose the archive make it the largest one from Late Antiquity. Written in Greek and Coptic, they range from private letters to petitions, imperial rescripts, rent contracts, and tax receipts. But they also include literary pieces – some of them, from the pen of Dioscorus himself. Through a close examination of the archive, this article offers a glimpse into the lives and sorrows of the Aphrodite’s inhabitants.