Roman-period provincial Egypt was more literate than medieval Europe before the 1800s

Evidence

The literacy of children, including girls, was substantial. Theon writes his own letter. P.Oxy. 1296 is from a young woman. Surviving school exercises in girls’ handwriting are well-attested. The Greco-Roman provincial town — at least in a place like Oxyrhynchus, with its substantial Greek-language administrative and commercial life — educated more children, in more depth, than the standard “ancient world had limited literacy” framing would suggest. Cribiore’s careful demographic analysis estimates that something like a third of the urban Oxyrhynchite male population was substantially literate, and a smaller but real proportion of urban females — perhaps fifteen to twenty percent — similarly so. These numbers are substantially higher than the comparable estimates for most of medieval Europe and for most of the early-modern world before the nineteenth century. — , The Rod and the Child, 1569

Categorization

• XREF: Counters the standard ‘ancient world had limited literacy’ framing that underpins many arguments about education history in this book. — connects to: Papyrus availability enabled Greek culture’s shift from oral to written form — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 53; Western Europe lost knowledge of Africa after Rome’s collapse

Related

• Western Europe lost knowledge of Africa after Rome’s collapse (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Papyrus availability enabled Greek culture’s shift from oral to written form #corroborates (0.45) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 53