Much of our knowledge about the ancient Mediterranean world is transmitted by texts that were originally produced by (and about) elites, but Graeco-Roman Egypt offers an exception: Its wealth of books and documents preserved on papyrus and related media— objects of broad daily use that have come down to us in varying states of preservation— offers access to the social, cultural, and economic lives of an unprecedentedly wide swath of people, including individuals whose narratives have typically been homogenized or silenced by elite discourse. In AGRS 130J you will learn how to read and interpret this rich corpus of primary evidence (which is naturally not without its difficulties and shortcomings) and to deploy it for the writing of more inclusive histories of the ancient Mediterranean.