Karanis was firstly explored in 1895 by the papyrologists P.B Grenfell and A.S. Hunt, who were followed in 1924/1925 by F.W. Kelsey, a professor of Latin language and literature at the University of Michigan, who was mainly interested in the objects related to daily life. For eleven seasons (1924-1935), Karanis became then the object of a systematic and accurate archaeological exploration and of a series of still very useful publications was produced.

More recently, specific parts of the town were explored by the Cairo University in collaboration with the IFAO (1967-1975) – when, among the other discoveries, a very well preserved Roman bath was found (el-Nassery, Wagner, Castel 1976, 231-275) –, and lastly by a joint mission of the UCLA and the University of Groningen (Wendrich, Bos, Pansire 2006, 1-6).
One of the main features of Karanis, together with a meaningful presence of granaries and dovecotes, is the good state of preservation of multi-storied houses – with underground rooms used for storage and an open-air courtyard on the ground floor –, grouped in blocks, that the archaeologists of the University of Michigan explored room by room. “The excavators kept notebooks of progress in the field, recording finds and observations as they occurred. Each artifact, as it was found, was identified by a label designating its level, house and room and was assigned a permanent number in the camp registry. On occasion, experts in the conservation of archaeological materials were consulted in an effort to provide appropriate care and treatment for the excavated finds. Detailed photographs were taken of every house and group of artifacts as they were excavated layer by layer. In addition, movies were filmed of excavations in progress; these alone provided thousands of images of the city as it carne to light” (Gazda 1983, 5).

During the excavations of the University of Michigan among the numerous papyri found were documents that shed light on a wide variety of the financial, legal, political and social transactions and relationships of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman residents. Surprisingly, however, both archaeological and papyrological finds datable to Late Antiquity were not so numerous.

As for the first aspect, the archaeologists of the University of Michigan did not identify any church or monastery and, on the basis of a lack of pottery remains and coins dated later than the fifth century, they were convinced that the site was abandoned between the end of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth, an opinion that was re-proposed also in recent times (Bagnall 1993, 111, in part revised: Bagnall 2001, 234).

It has been demonstrated, however, that many materials datable to the sixth-seventh centuries had been brought to the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, were they are still awaiting for an appropriate study and publication (Pollard 1998, 147-162; Buzi 2006, 111-133).

Moreover, a Late Antique Christian necropolis has been identified on the kom located on the other side of the road connecting Cairo with Madīnat al-Fayyūm (Buzi 2004, 97-106; Buzi 2006, 111-133). This occupies a series of little mounds on which the tombs are arranged in more or less regular rows and on more levels, being the bodies poorly embalmed and simply covered by a layer of sand. The presence of these Christian mummies – their faith being proved by a poor funerary kit that includes pendants with crosses – is evidenced by little mud brick truncated pyramids, that have the function of mark the location of the tombs.

Already in the ’30s of the twentieth century, however, the specialists of the University of Michigan had described the re-use of some houses of the most external area of Karanis for Christian funerary purposes. From the textual point of view, it will be sufficient to mention the famous papyrus attesting to the first use of the term “monachos” to define a monk, a fact that clearly shows the presence of monks in Karanis (Judge 1977, 72-89).
Most of the texts found in Karanis are now preserved in the University of Michigan Papyrus Collection. One of them (Michigan University, Library P. 5421) is the only Coptic text from Karanis identified so far.

In brief, there is no doubt that Karanis had a Late Antique and Christian phase of occupation that lasted at least to the beginning of the seventh century. New archaeological explorations on the site and a re-evaluation of the papyrological materials – published and unpublished – will tell us more about it in the future.

- Paola Buzi