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Jitse H.F. Dijkstra

Associate Professor, Department of Classics and Religious Studies

Member of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and thereby authorized to supervise theses.

Office: ARTS 012
Telephone: 613-562-5800, ext. 1325
E-mail: jdijkstr@uOttawa.ca
Website: http://artsites.uottawa.ca/dijkstra/

Jitse Dijkstra's research centers round the question how religion became transformed in Late Antiquity. In order to answer this question, he focuses on the particular regional and local context of religious transformation rather than on the ideological and general story. Trained as a papyrologist but multidisciplinary in approach, his main interest is Late Antique Egypt. He has just published a monograph on the religious transformation in the First Cataract region, southern Egypt, in particular at the island of Philae, and is now working on the publication of the graffiti in the temple of Isis at Aswan, where he has conducted field work from 2001 onwards.

University degrees 

2005 – PhD, University of Groningen
2000 – MA Educ., University of Groningen
1999 – MA, University of Groningen

Fields of interest 

• Egypt in late antiquity
• Coptic
• Papyrology and epigraphy
• Archaeology

Courses taught

• CLA2110 Archaeological Methods and Techniques
• CLA3000 Archaeological Field Work I
• CLA/HIS3110A Topics in Ancient History: Religions in the Graeco-Roman World
• CLA/HIS3110B Topics in Ancient History: Greek Temples
• CLA/HIS3110C Topics in Ancient History: Religious Violence in the Roman World
• CLA/SRS 3333 Religions of the Graeco-Roman World
• CLA3900 Archaeological Field Work II
• CLA/HIS4150B Ancient History Seminar: Egypt in Late Antiquity
• CLA5902 (Master’s Program Late Antiquity): Research and Methodology II
• CLA 5925 (Master’s Program in Late Antiquity) Introduction to an Ancient Language: Coptic
• LCL4150B Greek Authors: Lysias, A Defense against Murder
• LCL4150B Greek Authors: Herodotus, Book I
• LCL4150B Greek Authors: Euripides, Medea

Selected publications

Myths, Martyrs, and Modernity: Studies in the History of Religions in Honour of Jan N. Bremmer [Numen Book Series 127] (Leiden: Brill, 2010), lvi, 701 pp. (ed. with J.E.A. Kroesen and Y.B. Kuiper).

Philae and the End of Ancient Egyptian Religion. A Regional Study of Religious Transformation (298-642 CE) [Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 173] (Leuven: Peeters, 2008), xviii, 466 pp.

The Encroaching Desert: Egyptian Hagiography and the Medieval West (Leiden: Brill, 2006), viii, 288 pp. (ed. with M. van Dijk).

The Fate of the Temples in Late Antique Egypt, in L. Lavan, M. Mulryan (eds), The Archaeology of Late Antique ‘Paganism’ [Late Antique Archaeology 7] (Leiden, 2011) 389-436

Patriarchs and Politics in Constantinople in the Reign of Anastasius (with a Reedition of O.Mon.Epiph. 59), Millennium Jahrbuch 6 (2009) 223-64 (with G. Greatrex).

Structuring Graffiti: The Case of the Temple of Isis at Aswan, in R. Preys (ed.), 7. Ägyptologische Tempeltagung: Structuring Religion. Leuven, 28. September – 1. Oktober 2005 (Wiesbaden, 2009) 77-94

Mysteries of the Nile? Joseph Scaliger and Ancient Egypt, Aries. Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 9 (2009) 59-82.

A Bilingual Report of Proceedings with the First Consular Date to 433 C.E. in the Papyri, in F.A.J. Hoogendijk, B.P. Muhs (eds), Sixty-Five Papyrological Texts Presented to Klaas A. Worp on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday (Leiden, 2008) 203-12 (no. 27).

New Light on the Patermouthis Archive from Excavations at Aswan. When Archaeology and Papyrology Meet, Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 44 (2007) 179-209.

"Une foule immense de moines". The Coptic Life of Aaron and the Early Bishops of Philae, in B. Palme (ed.), Akten des 23. Internationalen Papyrologenkongresses. Wien, 22.-28. Juli 2001 (Vienna, 2007) 191-7.

The Town of Syene. Report on the 3^rd and 4^th Season in Aswan, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Kairo 62 (2006) 215-77 (with C. von Pilgrim, K.-C. Bruhn, J. Wininger).

The Administrative Position of Omboi and Syene in Late Antiquity, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 155 (2006) 183-7 (with K.A. Worp).

A Cult of Isis at Philae after Justinian? Reconsidering P.Cair.Masp. I 67004, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 146 (2004) 137-54.

“In Year One of King Zachari”. Evidence of a New Nubian King from the Monastery of St. Simeon at Aswan, Beiträge zur Sudanforschung 8 (2003) 31-9 (with J. van der Vliet).

Late Antique Inscriptions from the First Cataract Area Discovered and Rediscovered, Journal of Juristic Papyrology 33 (2003) 55-66.

Horus on His Throne. The Holy Falcon of Philae in His Demonic Cage, Göttinger Miszellen 189 (2002) 7-10.

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