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William Johnson

Professor of Classical Studies
Classical Studies
Box 90103, Durham, NC 27708-0103
236 Allen Building, Durham, NC 27708
Office hours On leave 2024-25.  

Scholarly Works - Journal articles


Papyrus Bookrolls with Jewish and Christian Content

Journal article Journal of Biblical Literature · 2026 This close study of 40 extant fragments of papyrus bookrolls with Jewish and Christian content focuses on details like format and scribal habits that might suggest distinct scribal communities. The study isolates three groups. (1) Nine BCE-era Septuagint p ... Cite

Typological Catalogue of the ancient Roman Scribal Tool Known as a Bone Rule

Journal article Journal of Open Archaeology Data · January 1, 2023 The dataset contains a typological catalogue of archaeological small finds of an ancient device known as a “bone rule” or “bone ruler” or “bone spatula,” together with scaled drawing and full metadata for each item in the catalogue. The ancient device has ... Full text Cite

Reading for Efficiency in Ancient Rome: THE CASE OF PLINY THE ELDER

Journal article Reception Texts Readers Audiences History · January 1, 2023 Readers in ancient Rome did not have efficiency of reading as a goal. The much-cited exception that proves the rule is a letter of the Younger Pliny (Letter 3.5, early 2nd c. CE) that describes the extraordinary reading habits of his uncle the Elder Pliny, ... Full text Cite

A TRIFLE, REPRISED: BRITISH LIBRARY SCHOOL TABLET ADD MS 34186(1)(2)

Journal article BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PAPYROLOGISTS · 2022 Full text Link to item Cite

Ptolemaic Mummy Stuffings, 3: The Documentary Texts (Beinecke P.CtYBR inv. 5058, 5059, 5060, 5061, 5062, 5063)

Journal article Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik · 2018 Featured Publication Cite

Isidora to Apollonia: a Private Letter in the Beinecke Collection (P.CtYBR inv. 5044)

Journal article Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik · 2018 Featured Publication Cite

Imperial Pantomime and Satoshi Miyagi’s Medea

Journal article Didaskalia · 2017 Featured Publication Open Access Link to item Cite

Ptolemaic Mummy Stuffings: An Intriguing Scholar’s Text in the Yale Collection (P.CtYBR 5018)

Journal article Archiv für Papyrusforschung · 2016 Featured Publication Open Access Cite

Ptolemaic Mummy Stuffings, 2: A Comic Fragment and Grammatical Text in the Yale Collection (P.CtYBR inv. 5019, 5043)

Journal article Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik · 2016 Featured Publication This is the second installment of a three-part project to publish a group of ten Ptolemaic papyri purchased by Yale’s Beinecke Library in 1998 (acquisition “1998b”), which came to the Beinecke as three hard wads that were apparently the stuffing from the s ... Open Access Cite

Pliny Epistle. 9.36 and Demosthenes' Cave

Journal article Classical World · 2013 Featured Publication Cite

The Oxyrhynchus Distributions in America: Papyri and Ethics

Journal article BASP · 2012 Featured Publication Cite

Cicero and Tyrannio: Mens addita videtur meis aedibus (ad Atticum iv.8.2)

Journal article Classical World · 2012 Featured Publication Cite

Teaching the Children How to Read: The Syllabary

Journal article Classical Journal · 2010 Featured Publication Cite

Hesiod's Theogony: Reading the Proem as a Priamel

Journal article Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies · 2008 Featured Publication Cite

The Story of the Papyri of the Villa dei Papiri

Journal article Journal of Roman Archaeology · 2006 Cite

A colloquium on ancient music

Journal article Classical Review · January 1, 2003 Full text Cite

P.Hibeh II 193 (Iliad VI 4-7)

Journal article Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik · 2002 Cite

Toward a sociology of reading in classical antiquity

Journal article American Journal of Philology · 2000 Featured Publication Cite

New instrumental music from Graeco-Roman Egypt

Journal article Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists · 2000 Cite

Musical Evenings in the Early Empire: New Evidence from a Greek Papyrus with Musical Notation

Journal article Journal of Hellenic Studies · 2000 Featured Publication Cite

Dramatic Frame and Philosophic Idea in Plato

Journal article The American Journal of Philology · 1998 Featured Publication Cite

Oral Performance and the Composition of Herodotus' Histories

Journal article Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies · 1994 Featured Publication Cite

The Appian Papyrus from Dura-Europus (P.Dura 2)

Journal article Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists · 1994 Cite

Macrocollum

Journal article Classical Philology · 1994 Cite

The Function of the Paragraphus in Greek Literary Prose Texts

Journal article Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik · 1994 Cite

Towards an Electronic Greek Historical Lexicon

Journal article Emerita · 1994 Cite

Column Layout in Oxyrhynchus Literary Papyri: Maas's Law, Ruling and Alignment Dots

Journal article Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik · 1993 Cite

Multiple Copies of Literary Papyri, Fiber Patterns, and P.Oxy. XLVIII 3376 fr. 44

Journal article Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik · 1992 Cite