The 1924-1935 University of Michigan excavations at the Graeco-Roman
period Egyptian village of Karanis yielded thousands of artifacts and
extensive archival records of their context. The Karanis material in the
Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and the University of Michigan Library
Papyrology Collection forms a unique body of information for
understanding life in an agricultural village in Ptolemaic and Roman
Egypt. In 2011 and 2012, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology presented the
exhibition Karanis Revealed in two parts, using artifacts from the
excavations and archival material to explore aspects of the site and its
excavation in the 1920s and 1930s. As preparation for the exhibition
progressed, it became clear that part of the story of the Michigan
Karanis expedition lay in the current and ongoing research on the
material it yielded by curators, faculty, staff, and students from the
University of Michigan. Such projects include new work on known
artifacts and papyri, the discovery or rediscovery of important
unpublished artifacts and archival sources, new field research at
Karanis, and even sonic investigations of the site and its history. The
present volume summarizes the recent exhibition and presents some of the
new research that helped inspire it.