«Urban Biographies of the Roman and Late Antique Worlds» examines the development of cities in Middle Egypt in the Roman and late antique periods, focusing on the two case-studies of Antinoopolis and Heracleopolis. The project aims to illustrate the contribution of ancient papyri and other materials found in Egypt to the urban history of the Roman and late antique worlds, and more specifically to uncover continuities and changes in the lives of these two individual cities. The project team will combine archaeological approaches and digital methods with the analysis of papyri and other textual materials to build an on-line platform which integrates relevant data for both sites. Historical research on these data will confront the individual evolution for each of these two cities with broader assumptions about economic, social, cultural, and political change, in particular the transition from the Roman to the late antique period.