Dans les ruines d'une maison proche du temple ptolémaïque de Deir al-Medina, sur la rive gauche de Thèbes, la Mission Archéologique Italienne dirigée par Ernesto Schiaparelli découvrit en février 1905 deux jarres encore scellées, desquelles on retira 33 rouleaux. Ils décelèrent 44 papyrus en écriture démotique, 8 en grec et 4 bilingues ; de plus, parmi les bandelettes de lin qui les enveloppaient, 5 étaient inscrites. Au total, 61 documents constituaient les archives familiales d'un prêtre attaché à ce temple, nommé Totoès fils de Zmanrès, et de son épouse Tatéhathyris. Le lot complet fut envoyé au Musée Égyptien de Turin, dont Schiaparelli était le directeur. Les textes grecs furent publiés en 1929, alors que l'édition des papyrus démotiques ne vit le jour qu'en 1967. Six d'entre eux furent republiés entre 1978 et 1985, tandis que quatre autres furent examinés à nouveau en 1997 dans une étude sur l'affermage à l'époque ptolémaïque. La plupart des documents sont des actes légaux et comportent donc des protocoles de datation mentionnant les différents souverains qui ont régné en Haute Égypte tout au long du IIe siècle avant notre ère. Le plus ancien, daté de 194, compte parmi les rares attestations du pharaon rebelle Chaonnophris ; les trois plus récents, datés entre 101 et 100, non seulement sont les premiers à révéler le décès de Cléopâtre III, mais sont aussi les seuls à témoigner de la corégence de Ptolémée X Alexandre Ier, de sa femme Cléopâtre Bérénice III, et de l'héritier Alexandre II, le futur Ptolémée XI. Les contrats sont de nature très variée. La plupart concernent la vente ou la location de jours de service liturgique, qui donnaient droit à une part proportionnelle des revenus des différents temples de la rive gauche thébaine. Ils représentaient une partie importante du patrimoine de ces prêtres : une donation issue de ces archives montre en effet qu'ils pouvaient être transmis de père en fils. D'autres actes mentionnent l'affermage de champs, l'achat d'immeubles, le prêt de céréales ou d'argent ; deux documents se rapportent à une forme de bail difficile à déchiffrer, un autre à un échange d'animaux. Le droit de la famille est représenté par cinq contrats de mariage et un de divorce ; un dernier fait état de frais d'enterrement. La thèse a pour objet la réédition intégrale de ces documents, y compris les jarres qui les contenaient. L'accès direct aux papyrus originaux conservés à Turin, ainsi qu'aux archives de leur mise au jour et de leur publication, a permis de détecter deux fragments inédits, de retrouver les numéros d'inventaire des papyrus grecs, de reconstituer les circonstances exactes de leur découverte et de retracer les rouleaux d'origine, pour la plupart des textes. L'étude philologique a établi des correspondances entre démotique et grec pour de nombreux noms de personnes et de lieux, a amélioré la lecture et mené à une nouvelle interprétation de certains textes. Deux actes et deux serments ont notamment révélé la dévolution des fonctions de mandataire de la déesse Hathor d'un père à ses trois fils, avec le consentement du clergé du temple de Deir al-Medina. Les modalités de partage de l'héritage paternel entre Tatéhathyris et son frère Pikos, où Totoès a joué un rôle d'intermédiaire, ont également été mieux saisies. Une étude paléographique menée, pour la première fois, sur l'ensemble du corpus a conduit à reconnaître la main de certains scribes auxquels ont été attribués certains papyrus, tandis que d'autres textes ont été réassignés. L'analyse des protocoles a dévoilé également une pratique locale visant à les raccourcir de manière arbitraire. Enfin, l'analyse des données prosopographiques et topographiques a mené à dresser un arbre généalogique de plusieurs générations de la famille de Totoès et de Tatéhathyris, ainsi qu'un portrait plus fidèle tantôt de la population, tantôt de lieux de culte, terrains et bâtiments de la ville de Djémê, les Memnoneïa grecs. / In a house in ruins near the Ptolemaic temple of Deir al-Medina, on the Theban West Bank, the Italian Archaeological Mission (MAI), leaded by Ernesto Schiaparelli, discovered in February 1905 two sealed jars, containing 33 rolls. They revealed 44 papyri in Demotic writing, 8 in Greek and 4 bilinguals; among the linen bands wrapping them, 5 were inscribed. Altogether, these 61 documents formed the family archive of a priest attached to this temple, named Totoes son of Zmanres, and of his wife Tatehathyris. The whole was sent to the Egyptian Museum in Turin, of which Schiaparelli was the director. The Greek texts were published in 1929, whereas the edition of the Demotic papyri appeared only in 1967. Later, six of them were republished between 1978 and 1985, while four were re-examined in 1997 in a study on field leasing in the Ptolemaic period. Most of these documents are legal acts and can be dated with the help of their protocols, which name several sovereigns ruling Upper Egypt during the 2nd century BCE. The oldest one, dated 194, is counted among the rare attestations of the rebel pharaoh Chaonnophris; the three most recent ones, between 101 and 100, are the only ones giving evidence of a coregency between Ptolemy X Alexander I, his wife Cleopatra Berenice III and the heir Alexander II, the future Ptolemy XI. Moreover, they are the first evidences concerning the death of Cleopatra III. The contracts are of different types. Most of them deal with the sale or the rent of days of liturgical service in many temples on the Theban West Bank, and of their related salaries. They were an important part of the capital of these priests: a deed of covenant from this archive shows that they could have been transferred from father to son. Other legal acts concern field leasing, real estate purchases, wheat or money loans: in particular, two documents relate to a form of lease not easy to understand, another one to an exchange of animals. Family law is represented by five marriage contracts and one divorce; one last text deals with funeral expenses. The dissertation focuses on the new edition of all the documents, including the jars containing them. Direct access to the originals in Turin, as well as to archival records concerning their discovery and publication, have allowed the identification of two unpublished fragments and of the inventory numbers of the Greek papyri, the reconstruction of the exact circumstances of the finding and the assignation of the most part of the texts to their rolls of origin. The philological study has established connections between Demotic and Greek for a lot of personal and place names, has improved readings and has led to new interpretations for some texts. Notably, two legal acts and two temple oaths have revealed the transfer of the duties as agent of the goddess Hathor from a father to his three sons, with the consent of the temple clergy of Deir al-Medina. Moreover, the way of sharing their father's inheritance between Tatehathyris and her brother Pikos, with the action of Totoes as intermediary, is now better understandable. The attention paid to the scribes from a palaeographical point of view permitted to ascribe for the first time or to assign some papyri to their author and to unveil the arbitrary scribal practice of cutting protocols. Finally, the analysis of the prosopographical and topographical data has led to a family tree over many generations of the family of Totoes and Tatehathyris, as well as to a more precise picture on the one hand of the local community, and on the other hand of some religious and civilian buildings and fields in the village of Djeme, called Memnoneia in Greek.

The port site of Berenike Troglodytica - located on the Egyptian Red Sea coast - served the spice and incense routes that linked the Mediterranean World (specifically the Roman Empire) to India, Southern Arabia and East Africa. In the Greco-Roman period the site was at the cutting edge of what was then the embryonic global economy, ideally situated as a key node connecting Indian Ocean and Mediterranean trade for almost 800 years. It is now located in an arid, marginal, hostile environment but the situation must have been very different 2300 years ago, at the time of its founding. At the time of elephant-hunting trips during the Hellenistic period before the inception of its important role in the global markets of the day in the Roman period Berenike would have to have looked much different to what we can now imagine. What was it like then, when the first prospectors visited this location at the time of Ptolemy II? Why this particular place, and this particular landscape setting seemed such a propitious location for the siting of an important new harbour? Given the importance of the port over almost a millennium it is perhaps surprising that very little is known about the different factors impacting on the foundation, evolution, heyday and subsequent decline of the city; or the size, shape, and capacity of its harbour. The intention of this research is to address this shortfall in our knowledge, to examine the drivers behind the rise and fall of this port city, and to explore the extent to which the dynamics of the physical landscape were integral to this story. Using an innovative Earth Science approach, changes in the archaeological 'coastscape' have been reconstructed and correlated with periods of occupation and abandonment of the port, shedding light on the nature, degree and directionality of human-environment interactions at the site. This work has revealed profound changes in the configuration of the coastal landscape and environment (including the sea level) during the lifespan of Berenike, highlighting the ability of people to exploit changes in their immediate environment, and demonstrating that, ultimately, the decline of the port was partly due to these landscape dynamics. To further explore these themes the landscape reconstructions have been supplemented by semi-quantitative analyses of a suite of variables likely to influence the initial siting of new ports of trade. These have shown that although the site of Berenike was ideal in terms of its coastal landscape potential, possessing a natural sheltered bay and lagoon system, the choice of location was not solely influenced by its environmental conditions. Additionally, a detailed review of vessels that plied Red Sea and Indian Ocean routes is presented here in order to better understand the design and functioning of Berenike's harbour. This serves the purpose of identifying unifying features that provide more detail about the size and draught of vessels and the potential capacity of the harbour basin. By using this multi-scalar approach it has been possible to reconstruct the 'coastscape' of the site through the key periods of its occupancy and those phases immediately before and after its operation. This has wide-ranging implications for researchers studying ancient ports along this trade network as a larger database will tease out more details about how influential the landscape was in the initial siting of the port and its subsequent use and decline.

Mon inscription en thèse sur travaux est l’aboutissement et la reconnaissance d’un parcours de céramologue en Égypte dans le cadre de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire (Ifao). Un grand nombre d’opérations archéologiques sur tout le territoire égyptien nourrissent mes recherches, et m’ont logiquement conduite à développer la question des groupes céramiques régionaux, à les comparer et à en suivre les évolutions du Néolithique à l’époque arabe.La première partie de la synthèse établit un inventaire archéologique des centres de production de céramiques publiés en Égypte, de l’époque prédynastique à l’époque moderne. La seconde partie est consacrée aux groupes céramiques régionaux égyptiens. Une démarche linéaire et diachronique a été choisie pour la réalisation d’un parcours général des groupes céramiques régionaux en Égypte du VIIe millénaire à la fin de l’époque ottomane. Elle tente d’en décrire de façon dynamique les grandes lignes de rupture ou de continuité. Afin d’illustrer la richesse et l’intérêt de ce point de vue pour l’étude des céramiques égyptiennes, nous proposons deux études de cas qui sont situées aux antipodes l’une de l’autre tant sur les plans chronologiques et géographiques que culturels. En effet, chacune se réfère à des problématiques historiques, culturelles et techniques très différentes. L’une concerne la céramique funéraire datée de la fin de l’Ancien Empire à Bahariya ; l’autre étude se concentre sur la céramique égyptienne domestique du début de l’époque ptolémaïque, autour du IIIe siècle av. J.-C. / My registration to a thesis based on work experience is the outcome and recognition of a ceramologist career in Egypt within the framework of the Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire (Ifao). A large number of archaeological operations throughout Egypt feed my research and they have logically led me to enlarge the issue of regional pottery groups, to compare and to monitor them and to follow their developments from the Neolithic Period to the Islamic Period. The first part of the synthesis provides an archaeological inventory of pottery production centres published in Egypt, from the Predynastic Period to the Modern Era. The second part is devoted to the Egyptian regional pottery groups. A linear and diachronic approach was chosen for the implementation of a general course of regional pottery groups in Egypt from the seventh millennium to the end of the Ottoman Period, attempting to dynamically outline the ruptures or continuities. To illustrate the richness and relevance of this perspective for the study of Egyptian potteries, we propose two case studies that are to the opposite of each other, at a chronological and geographical level as well as at a cultural level. Indeed, each refers to very different historical, cultural and technical issues. One concerns the funerary pottery dated of the end of the Old Kingdom in Bahariya; the other study focuses on Egyptian domestic pottery at the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period, dated around the third century BC.