Women lived as monks in their own houses, in communities of women, and possibly as semi-hermits in caves or tombs. In particular, at the White Monastery Federation, across the Nile from modern Akhmim and ancient Panopolis, a community of monastic women, one that included girls, existed from the fourth century on. In conducting my research for a forthcoming book on children and family, I found concrete evidence for the presence of girls in some monasteries – especially in the White Monastery Federation. Unfortunately the evidence was scarce. Therefore, writing a comprehensive social history of girls in late antique Egyptian monasticism proved difficult.

This is the version of record, first published in volume 19 of Coptica. It has been made available in SHAREOK with the permission of the journal editor.