Book Review: Ostraca de Krokodilo

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (Reviewed by Thomas Kruse)

Hélène Cuvigny, Ostraca de Krokodilô. La correspondence militaire et sa circulation (O. Krok. 1-151). Praesidia du désert de Bérénice II. Fouilles de l'IFAO 51. Le Caire: Institut français d'archéologie orientale, 2005

Hélène Cuvigny is a distinguished expert on the area of the Egyptian Eastern desert between the Red Sea and the valley of the Nile in the Roman period. Since 1994 in the context of a research project which is funded by the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo she has been entrusted with the exploration of the network of the small Roman forts (praesidia) along the 180 km road leading from Qift (ancient Koptos) to Qusayr on the Read Sea. Almost at the beginning of this project it turned out that Qusayr or (to be more precise) the ancient site of Qusayr al-Qadîm, 5 km north of the modern town, is the ancient sea port of Myos Hormos, which had until then been located in historical maps of the region about 160 km further to the north along the Red Sea coast. . . .

With the book under review (henceforth O.Krok.), which contains the edition of about 150 ostraca from Krokodilô, a Roman praesidium 63 km east of Koptos, Cuvigny now begins the series of the systematic publication of the ostraca found in the excavations of the several praesidia alongside the road to Myos Hormos. In the introduction to this volume Cuvigny informs the reader that the ostraca of Krokodilô now provide the most substantial information on the internal organisation and functioning of the several praesidia and for this reason deserved to be edited first.