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Evolving ritual practices, divine iconography, and the construction and renovation of cult spaces all speak to wider processes of cultural and political change in Pre-Islamic Central Asia. The archaeological record has much to contribute... more
Evolving ritual practices, divine iconography, and the construction and renovation of cult spaces all speak to wider processes of cultural and political change in Pre-Islamic Central Asia. The archaeological record has much to contribute to our understanding of religious practices in the region over the longue durée, but much remains to be done in terms of developing critical approaches to this material and exploiting scholarly expertise across disciplinary boundaries. This conference will bring together specialists in the field of Central Asian archaeology to present new fieldwork and explore areas of common interest. The conference also serves as the second meeting of the Hellenistic Central Asia Research Network, following a productive workshop at the University of Reading in April 2016. We understand both 'religion' and 'Hellenistic' broadly, extending to all areas of ritual practice, in the wider period of the late first millennium BCE and early first millennium CE, across Central Asia from Sogdiana to Gandhāra and beyond. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: • Integrating analysis of archaeological and textual sources. • Zoroastrianism in Central Asia: problems of interpreting archaeological evidence. • New fieldwork at sanctuary and temple sites. • Religious change and innovation. • Cultural interaction and religious interaction. • Theoretical and methodological approaches to archaeological evidence. We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers on relevant topics, from both established scholars and early career researchers. Abstracts of no more than 200 words, along with the author's name, title and institutional affiliation, should be submitted to Gunvor Lindström (gunvor.lindstroem@dainst.de) and Rachel Mairs (r.mairs@reading.ac.uk) no later than 31 May 2017. Thanks to the generosity of the Eurasia Department of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, we anticipate being able to offer some travel funding to participants, on a case by case basis. Gunvor Lindström (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut)) Rachel Mairs (University of Reading)
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The full original 2011 bibliographical survey on the archaeology of the Hellenistic Far East, with annual updates.
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Bi-/Multi-lingualism and the History of Language Learning and Teaching

R. Mairs and R. Smith eds.

Taylor and Francis 2019
Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions Part I: Greek, Bilingual, and Trilingual Inscriptions from Egypt. Volume 1. Alexandria and the Delta (Nos. 1–206) A. K. Bowman, C. V. Crowther, S. Hornblower, R. Mairs and K. Savvopoulos eds. Oxford... more
Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions Part I: Greek, Bilingual, and Trilingual Inscriptions from Egypt. Volume 1. Alexandria and the Delta (Nos. 1–206)

A. K. Bowman, C. V. Crowther, S. Hornblower, R. Mairs and K. Savvopoulos eds.

Oxford University Press 2021
The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World

R. Mairs ed.
Routledge 2020
The Hermeneus to Dragoman blog accompanies this project: https://hermeneis.wordpress.com/
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The site of Ai Khanoum is, at present, the only major settlement of the Hellenistic Greek kingdom of Bactria to have been subject to extensive excavation. As such, it provides an invaluable, if problematic, source of information on this... more
The site of Ai Khanoum is, at present, the only major settlement of the Hellenistic Greek kingdom of Bactria to have been subject to extensive excavation. As such, it provides an invaluable, if problematic, source of information on this most remote and little-investigated of the ...
8 Egyptian 'Inscriptions' and Greek 'Graffiti'at El Kanais in the Egyptian Eastern Desert Rachel Mairs THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF GRAFFITI AT EL KANAIS The site of El Kanais lies around 55 km east of Edfu in the Wadi Mia,... more
8 Egyptian 'Inscriptions' and Greek 'Graffiti'at El Kanais in the Egyptian Eastern Desert Rachel Mairs THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF GRAFFITI AT EL KANAIS The site of El Kanais lies around 55 km east of Edfu in the Wadi Mia, along one of the major routes through the eastern ...
The long-awaited catalogue of the Demotic texts from the Brooklyn Museum (P.Brookl.Dem.) contains many items of interest, among them a curious bilingual Demotic-Greek ostrakon with a long list of personal names (No. 180). The Greek... more
The long-awaited catalogue of the Demotic texts from the Brooklyn Museum (P.Brookl.Dem.) contains many items of interest, among them a curious bilingual Demotic-Greek ostrakon with a long list of personal names (No. 180). The Greek portion of the text was published separately by Shelton in his catalogue of the same institution's Greek and Latin papyri (P.Brookl. 81). The question of whether and in what way the two languages of the ostrakon relate to each other has not been explicitly considered in either of the original publications, but the implication has been that they are separate. Holistic consideration of the Greek and the Demotic, however, makes it all but certain that they represent two portions of a single account, originating from a quarry somewhere in the neighborhood of Aswan and relating to a relatively brief quarrying or transportation project, taking place over just two days, but involving more than 60 laborers. I do not provide here a full transcription and trans...
Beyond Rosetta: Multilingual Inscriptions, the Antiquities Trade and the Decipherment of Egyptian Scripts R. Mairs In: The Epigraphy of Ptolemaic Egypt: Greek and Bilingual Inscriptions, edited by A. Bowman and C. Crowther Oxford... more
Beyond Rosetta: Multilingual Inscriptions, the Antiquities Trade and the Decipherment of Egyptian Scripts

R. Mairs

In: The Epigraphy of Ptolemaic Egypt: Greek and Bilingual Inscriptions, edited by A. Bowman and C. Crowther

Oxford University Press 2020
Interpretes, Negotiatores and the Roman Army: Mobile Professionals and their Languages R. Mairs In: Migration, Mobility, and Language Contact in and around the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by J. Clackson, P. James, K. McDonald, L.... more
Interpretes, Negotiatores and the Roman Army: Mobile Professionals and their Languages

R. Mairs

In: Migration, Mobility, and Language Contact in and around the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by J. Clackson, P. James, K. McDonald, L. Tagliapietra and N. Zair

Cambridge University Press 2020
The Hellenistic Far East in Historical Fiction: Ancient History, Modern Ideologies R. Mairs In: Seen from Oxyartes’ Rock. Central Asia Under and After Alexander. Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the Hellenistic Central Asia Research... more
The Hellenistic Far East in Historical Fiction: Ancient History, Modern Ideologies

R. Mairs

In: Seen from Oxyartes’ Rock. Central Asia Under and After Alexander. Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the Hellenistic Central Asia Research Network, edited by J. Havlík and L. Stančo

Charles University 2021
Mairs, Rachel (2019) “The Archaeology of the Hellenistic Far East: A Survey. Bactria, Central Asia and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, c. 300 BC – AD 100: Supplement 7,” Hellenistic Far East Bibliography Online www.bactria.org, published... more
Mairs, Rachel (2019) “The Archaeology of the Hellenistic Far East: A Survey. Bactria, Central Asia and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, c. 300 BC – AD 100: Supplement  7,” Hellenistic Far East Bibliography Online www.bactria.org, published December 2019.
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Egypt of the Hellenistic and Roman periods remains the most thoroughly documented multilingual society in the ancient world, because of the wealth of texts preserved on papyrus in Egyptian, Greek, Latin and other languages. This makes the... more
Egypt of the Hellenistic and Roman periods remains the most thoroughly documented multilingual society in the ancient world, because of the wealth of texts preserved on papyrus in Egyptian, Greek, Latin and other languages. This makes the scarcity of interpreters in the papyrological record all the more curious. This study reviews all instances in the papyri of individuals referred to as hermēneus in Greek, or references to the process of translation/interpreting. It discusses the terminological ambiguity of hermēneus, which can also mean a commercial mediator; the position of language mediators in legal cases in Egyp-tian, Greek and Latin; the role of gender in language mediation; and concludes with a survey of interpreting in Egyptian monastic communities in Late Antiquity.
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Mairs, Rachel (2018) “The Archaeology of the Hellenistic Far East: A Survey. Bactria, Central Asia and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, c. 300 BC – AD 100: Supplement 6,” Hellenistic Far East Bibliography Online www.bactria.org, published... more
Mairs, Rachel (2018) “The Archaeology of the Hellenistic Far East: A Survey. Bactria, Central Asia and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, c. 300 BC – AD 100: Supplement 6,” Hellenistic Far East Bibliography Online www.bactria.org, published December 2018.
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Mairs, Rachel (2018) "‘A Dragoman for Travellers’: Popular Arabic Instruction Books and their Authors in Late Nineteenth-Century Egypt," in Nicola McLelland and Richard Smith (eds.), The History of Language Learning and Teaching: Across... more
Mairs, Rachel (2018) "‘A Dragoman for Travellers’: Popular Arabic Instruction Books and their Authors in Late Nineteenth-Century Egypt," in Nicola McLelland and Richard Smith (eds.), The History of Language Learning and Teaching: Across Cultures, London: Routledge.
Mairs, Rachel (2018) "The Men Who Would Be Alexander: Alexander the Great and his Graeco-Bactrian Successors in the Raj," in Kenneth Moore (eds.), Brill's Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great, 545-563. Leiden: Brill.
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Mairs, Rachel (2018) "The Politics of Classical Translation," in Fruela Fernández and Jonathan Evans (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Politics, 401-409. London: Routledge.
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Mairs, Rachel (2018) "Aigyptia grammata: Linguistic and medical training in Graeco-Roman Egypt," in Nicola Reggiani and Francesca Bertonazzi (eds.), Parlare la medicina: fra lingue e culture, nello spazio e nel tempo, 3-11. Milano:... more
Mairs, Rachel (2018) "Aigyptia grammata: Linguistic and medical training in Graeco-Roman Egypt," in Nicola Reggiani and Francesca Bertonazzi (eds.), Parlare la medicina: fra lingue e culture, nello spazio e nel tempo, 3-11. Milano: Mondadori.
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Forthcoming 2017 in The Classical Quarterly.
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Mairs, Rachel (2015) "Bactrian or Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom," in John MacKenzie (eds.), Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Empire, London: Wiley-Blackwell.
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To register for the conference, email r.mairs@reading.ac.uk  Further information at:
https://hellenisticfareast.wordpress.com/about/colloquium-2016/
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Hellenistic Central Asia: Current Research, New Directions.  Colloquium to be held at the University of Reading, United Kingdom, on 16 April 2016.
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Mairs, Rachel (2015) “The Archaeology of the Hellenistic Far East: A Survey. Bactria, Central Asia and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, c. 300 BC – AD 100: Supplement 3,” Hellenistic Far East Bibliography Online www.bactria.org, published 30... more
Mairs, Rachel (2015) “The Archaeology of the Hellenistic Far East: A Survey. Bactria, Central Asia and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, c. 300 BC – AD 100: Supplement 3,” Hellenistic Far East Bibliography Online www.bactria.org, published 30 August 2015.
Available online at: https://hellenisticfareast.wordpress.com/about/supplement-3-2015/
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A short review of some recent publications. Mairs, Rachel (2014) “The Archaeology of the Hellenistic Far East: A Survey. Bactria, Central Asia and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, c. 300 BC – AD 100: Supplement 2,” Hellenistic Far East... more
A short review of some recent publications.
Mairs, Rachel (2014) “The Archaeology of the Hellenistic Far East: A Survey. Bactria, Central Asia and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, c. 300 BC – AD 100: Supplement 2,” Hellenistic Far East Bibliography Online www.bactria.org, published 29 September 2014.
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And 18 more

Facebook discussion group for the University of Reading-based Hellenistic Central Asia Research Network
Because western views of the Middle East haven't changed for the best since the publication of Edward Said's seminal work "Orientalism" in 1978.
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Call for papers: HoLLT.net Symposium on 'Women in the History of Language Learning and Teaching' at the World Congress of Applied Linguistics (AILA 2020), Groningen, The Netherlands, 9–14 August 2020. HoLLT.net (http://www.hollt.net) is a... more
Call for papers: HoLLT.net Symposium on 'Women in the History of Language Learning and Teaching' at the World Congress of Applied Linguistics (AILA 2020), Groningen, The Netherlands, 9–14 August 2020.
HoLLT.net (http://www.hollt.net) is a Research Network of AILA (Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée – International Association of Applied Linguistics) which was founded in 2015 to stimulate research into the history of language learning and teaching within applied linguistics internationally.
Orientalism, the Classics and Egypt (Third Meeting) The Reception of Ancient and Modern Egyptian Culture and Heritage, in Academia and Beyond مصر والاستشراق والدراسات الكلاسيكية (اللقاء الثالث) تلقي الثقافة والتراث المصري قديمًا وحديثًا... more
Orientalism, the Classics and Egypt (Third Meeting)
The Reception of Ancient and Modern Egyptian Culture and Heritage, in Academia and Beyond
مصر والاستشراق والدراسات الكلاسيكية (اللقاء الثالث)
تلقي الثقافة والتراث المصري قديمًا وحديثًا في المجتمع الأكاديمي وما سواه
Monday, 11 March 2019
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Main Entrance, Auditorium
https://www.bibalex.org/en/events/eventdetails?id=68349
The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are described vividly and in detail by ancient Greek authors and have been thoroughly evaluated by modern historians. Numismatic studies have... more
The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are described vividly and in detail by ancient Greek authors and have been thoroughly evaluated by modern historians. Numismatic studies have reconstructed the history of the following centuries. However, our understanding of the (mutual?) acculturation
following the campaign remains limited. The aim of the conference was to discuss what actually happened in Central Asia at that time. It takes as much as possible a local point of view and ask how local people experienced these turbulent developments, and how they coped with the strange newcomers. As in the previous meetings of HCARN group in Reading 2016 and Berlin 2017, the Prague conference brings together archaeologists, historians, and numismatists working on various aspects of the Hellenistic Central Asia.
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The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are described vividly and in detail by ancient Greek authors and have been thoroughly evaluated by modern historians. Numismatic studies have... more
The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are described vividly and in detail by ancient Greek authors and have been thoroughly evaluated by modern historians. Numismatic studies have reconstructed the history of the following centuries. However, our understanding of the (mutual?) acculturation following the campaign remains limited.

The aim of the conference is to discuss what actually happened in Central Asia. It will take a local point of view and ask how local people experienced these turbulent developments, and how they coped with the strange newcomers.

As in the previous meetings of HCARN group, the conference will bring together archaeologists, historians, and numismatists working on various aspects of Hellenistic Central Asia.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Locating the events of Alexander´s campaign: Combined analysis of archaeological and textual sources

Settlement patterns and dynamics in the late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods
Structural changes in the local society
Elites and their adapting to the new reality
Material culture: local or introduced?
New fieldwork at relevant archaeological sites
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Registration now open for the History of Language Learning and Teaching conference at the University of Reading, 5-7 July 2018: https://store.rdg.ac/HoLLTnetInternationalMeeting2018.
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November 14-16 2018, Institute of Classical Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are described vividly and in detail by ancient... more
November 14-16 2018, Institute of Classical Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague

The events directly connected with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Central Asia are described vividly and in detail by ancient Greek authors and have been thoroughly evaluated by modern historians. Numismatic studies have reconstructed the history of the following centuries. However, our understanding of the (mutual?) acculturation following the campaign remains limited.
The aim of the conference is to discuss what actually happened in Central Asia. It will take a local point of view and ask how local people experienced these turbulent developments, and how they coped with the strange newcomers.
As in the previous meetings of HCARN group, the conference will bring together archaeologists, historians, and numismatists working on various aspects of Hellenistic Central Asia.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Locating the events of Alexander´s campaign: Combined analysis of archaeological and textual sources
• Settlement patterns and dynamics in the late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Periods
• Structural changes in the local society
• Elites and their adapting to the new reality
• Material culture: local or introduced?
• New fieldwork at relevant archaeological sites

We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers on relevant topics, from both established scholars and early career researchers. Abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with the author’s name, title and institutional affiliation, should be submitted to
hcarn3@ff.cuni.cz
no later than 31 May 2018.

Thanks to the generosity of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, we anticipate being able to offer some travel funding to participants, on a case by case basis.

Ladislav Stančo (Charles University)
Gunvor Lindström (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut)
Rachel Mairs (University of Reading)
Research Interests:
Alan Bowman, Charles Crowther, Simon Hornblower, Rachel Mairs, Kyriakos Savvopoulos: 'A Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions'. Poster presented at the XVth International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy, Languages – Culture of Writing –... more
Alan Bowman, Charles Crowther, Simon Hornblower, Rachel Mairs, Kyriakos Savvopoulos: 'A Corpus of Ptolemaic Inscriptions'.  Poster presented at the XVth International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy, Languages – Culture of Writing – Identities in Antiquity, Vienna 28th August – 1st September 2017