Contextualising Northern Egypt in Late Antiquity: An Archaeological Perspective from Western Delta

After a brief theoretical introduction on the notion of ‘place’ developed by the ‘PAThs’ project and its implications for the geo-graphical representation of the contexts of Coptic manuscripts, the article focuses on the north-western Delta, and discusses a group of important sites (Buto, Koprithis, Sais, and Xois) as case-studies to test that notion and to explore the impact of the ar-chaeological investigation of the area on our understanding of Late Antique and Medieval Egypt. Insisting on the urban character of those sites, as well as on their apparent integration into a dynamic regional system, it is suggested that Delta archaeology can positively contribute: (1) to redress the imbalance towards the Valley and the monastic contexts, emphasising the role of the cities as intellectually active milieus; (2) to stimulate a more critical sensibility towards archaeological evidence, material culture, and survey data as instrumental in building an integrated, holistic, and well-balanced approach that complements textual informa-tion and allows us to reconstruct a detailed picture of the historical and cultural landscape of Christian Egypt