Dr. Ella Karev

BA       Tel Aviv University, Archaeology and Classics, 2016

MA      University of Chicago, Egyptology, 2018

Thesis title: Variant Presentations in the Ptolemaic Sacerdotal Decrees (Supervisors: Prof. Janet Johnson and Prof. Brian Muhs)

PhD     (Hons.) University of Chicago, Egyptology, 2022

Dissertation title: Slavery and Servitude in Late Period Egypt (c. 900–330 BC) (Supervisors: Prof. Brian Muhs, Prof. Janet Johnson, Prof. Alain Bresson)

2023–2024      Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Turin Humanities Programme

Fondazione 1563 per l’Arte e la Cultura della Compagnia di San Paolo

Research initiative: “Slavery, Ethnicity and Race in the Mediterranean: Ideas and Attitudes from Homer to Columbus”

Visiting Scholar, University of Torino

2022–2023      Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

Division of the Humanities, University of Chicago

2020–2021      Senior Fellow

Chicago Center for Teaching, University of Chicago

2019–2020      Greek Papyrology Fellow

Special Collections at the Regenstein Library, University of Chicago

2018–2019      Junior Fellow

Chicago Center for Teaching, University of Chicago

• Slavery and servitude in the ancient world
• Late Period and Ptolemaic Egypt
• Biometrics, self-perception, and population tracking
• Body modification
• Greek, Demotic, Coptic, and Aramaic papyrology
• Semantic and lexical flexibility
• Language interaction in multilingual societies

A. Books and monographs

1. E. Karev. 2024. Physical Descriptions, Biometrics, and Eikonographia in Graeco-Roman Papyri from Egypt. Harvard Egyptological Series 24 (Brill).
2. E. Karev. 2025. Slavery and Servitude in Late Period Egypt  (c. 900–330 BC). Ägypten und Altes Testament 131 (Zaphon).
3. [In preparation] Names of Servitude: Language, Names, and Slavery in Ptolemaic Egypt.

B. Refereed articles in journals

1. E. Karev. 2022. ‘Mark Them with My Mark’: Human Branding in Egyptian. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 108: 1–13.
2. E. Karev. 2023. Slave Sale from Hermopolis (P. Vindob. G1329 recto; sixth/seventh century). Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 60: 115–123.
3. E. Karev. 2023. Nemeh in Pharaonic Egypt: ‘Free’ or ‘Miserable’? A Case Study of Historical Semantics. Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften 34(2): 61–78.
4. E. Karev. 2024. Debt Bondage in Late Period Egypt. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 10(2): 371–394.
5. E. Karev, L. Packard-Grams. 2024. Date-Palm Tax on Sacred Land from 50 AD. Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 61: 85–86.
6. E. Karev, H. Qandeil. 2024. Receipt for the Date-Palm Tax on Sacred Land. Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 61: 88–89.
7. E. Karev, C. Casias. 2024. Receipt for the Poll and Bath Tax. Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 61: 96–98.
8. E. Karev. 2024. A Crown Tax Receipt from 42 AD. Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 61: 102–105.
9. E. Karev. 2024. The Reply of Jesus to Abgar in Coptic (P. Vindob. G 1329 verso). Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 61: 209–217.
10. E. Karev, A. Apostolakou, S. Bounta, C. Caputo, V. Iannace, J. Johansen, C. Koen, L. Packard-Grams, H. Qandeil, S. Rahyab, K. Stevens, H. Upton, P. Yordanova. 2024. Newly-Edited Ostraca Upsaliensia from the Petemenophis and Sons Archive. Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 61: 75–145.
11. E. Karev. 2025. ‘She Obeys Me’: Lexically Significant Names of Slaves in Egypt (c. 2100–332 BC). Journal of Near Eastern Studies 84(1): 1–21.
12. E. Karev. 2025. ‘Dental Records’: Personal Identification by A Mark on the Tooth in Ptolemaic Papyri. Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 51: 45–58.
13. E. Karev. 2025. ‘Skin of Honey’ and ‘Honey-Colored’: The Translation of Physical Descriptions in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Journal of Literary Multilingualism 3: 240–262.
14. [In press] E. Karev. ‘Boy’, ‘Slave’, and ‘Slav’: Slaves as Children and Children as Slaves in Demotic Egyptian. Journal of the American Oriental Society. 
15. [In press] E. Karev. Dead Sea Bitumen in Egyptian Mummification and the Toponym ‘Djahy’ in Pap. Boulaq III. Tel Aviv.

C. Chapters in books

C1. Refereed articles in books

1. E. Karev. 2022. Letter from the Gnôster (P. Inv. Sorb. 2479). In A. Boud’hours and A. Delattre (eds.), Coptica Sorbonensia : Textes et documents de la 6e université d'été de papyrologie copte, pp. 196–198 (Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance).
2. E. Karev. 2022. Administrative Letter Regarding Commodities (P. Inv. Sorb. 2480). A. Boud’hours and A. Delattre (eds.), Coptica Sorbonensia : Textes et documents de la 6e université d'été de papyrologie copte, pp. 192–195 (Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance).
3. E. Karev. 2023. Ancient Egyptian Slavery. In J. Schiel and D. Pargas (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery Throughout History, pp. 41–66 (Palgrave).
4. E. Karev. 2024. Impairments as Biometric Modalities in Egypt as Evidenced in Greek Papyri, 241 BCE–300 CE. In A. Morris and H. Vogel (eds.), Disability in Ancient Egypt and Egyptology: All Our Yesterdays, pp. 257–277 (Routledge).
5. [Forthcoming] E. Karev. Prisoners of War or Deportees? (Re-)Defining Wartime Captivity in Middle and New Kingdom Egypt. In J. Tomkins, D. Schreiner, and S. Thompson (eds.), Preparation, Enactment, and Remembrance of Warfare in the Ancient Near East and North Africa.
6. [Forthcoming] E. Karev. Not so Black and White: Ethnonyms and Skin Colour in Graeco-Roman Documentary Identification. In M. Hewitt, E. Karev, N. Luraghi, and B. Mazzini Gori (eds.), Exploitation and Otherness: Investigating the Nexus of Race, Ethnicity, and Enslavement in the Ancient Mediterranean.
7. [Under review] E. Karev. Disability and Identification of Military Personnel in Ptolemaic Egypt. In J. Draycott and G. Zisa (eds.), Companion to Disability and Warfare (Brill).
8. [Under review] Comparative Pricing of Slaves and Other Commodities in Egypt from the New Kingdom to the Ptolemaic Period (c. 1200 BC–30 AD). In E. Devecchi and M. Valente (eds.), Economic Rationality of Slavery in Historical Perspective (Routledge).
9. [Under review] E. Karev. Sale and Protection: Self-Dedication and Self-Gifting in Ptolemaic Egypt. In V. Bartash and D. Lewis (eds.), Humans as Gifts: Historical and Anthropological Approaches.
10. [Under review] E. Karev. ‘Door to the South’: Elephantine as an Ideological Border. In E. Trinka and S. Thompson (eds.), Social Dimensions of Borders and Borderlands in the Ancient Near East.
11. [Under review] E. Karev. The Relationship between the Temples and the Population. Neue Pauly.
12. [Invited; in preparation]  E. Karev. Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in Ancient Egypt. In R. Janssen and P. du Plessis (eds.), Legal Thinking and Society in Antiquity. Testing the Limits of Ancient Law (Routledge).

E. Other publications

1. E. Karev and S. Richardson. 2021. Rethinking Slavery in the Ancient Near East. Ancient Near East Today 10(10).
2. E. Karev. 2024. ‘So That You May Know Them’: Portraits of Individuals Described in Graeco-Roman Papyri. Turin Global History Blog.
3. E. Karev. 2024. Review of Jane L. Rowlandson, Roger S. Bagnall, and Dorothy J. Thompson (eds.), Slavery and Dependence in Ancient Egypt: Sources in Translation. Journal of Global Slavery 9: 16–18.
4. E. Karev. 2024. Review of Jane L. Rowlandson, Roger S. Bagnall, and Dorothy J. Thompson (eds.), Slavery and Dependence in Ancient Egypt: Sources in Translation. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 83(2): 332–335.
5. E. Karev. 2025. Trismegistos Corpus Data 25, E. Karev, Physical Descriptions, Biometrics, and Eikonographia in Graeco-Roman Papyri from Egypt (Harvard Egyptological Studies 24), Leiden: Brill, 2024. [https://www.trismegistos.org/tmcorpusdata/25/].

2024    Alon Fellowship for outstanding young researchers

2023    Selected as the representative speaker for the Association of Ancient Historians;   

Inaugural AAH-Mommsen Society Lectures

2022    First Place winner, ‘Three Minute Thesis’ competition

2021    First Place winner, ‘Best Student Paper competition’;

American Research Center in Egypt annual meeting

2016    Kleinstub Scholarship for outstanding student of Greek

2015    Kessler Scholarship for the promotion of Egyptology