An excerpt from the Iliad was recovered wrong an Egyptian mummy / © Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, University of Barcelona, Phys.org
EGYPT. Archaeologists person discovered a unique find successful the past metropolis of Oxyrhynchus – a papyrus with a fragment of the Iliad. Homerplaced wrong the mummy during embalming.
This is the archetypal known lawsuit of a classical literate text being deliberately included successful a ceremonial ritual.
Where was the find made?
Oxyrhynchus, located astir 190 kilometers south of Cairo, was 1 of the largest centers successful Egypt during the Greco-Roman era.
Thanks to the adust clime and deficiency of aboriginal development, a immense magnitude of papyri has been preserved here, making the metropolis a cardinal constituent for archaeological probe since the extremity of the 19th century.
Excavation context
An expedition from the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies astatine the University of Barcelona discovered a dilapidated burial analyzable from the Roman period, astir 1,600 years old.
It contained:
- underground stone tombs;
- ceramic vessels containing cremated remains;
- bronze and terracotta figurines;
- mummies successful painted wooden sarcophagi.
Some mummies contained so-called “golden tongues” – amulets that, according to the beliefs of the past Egyptians, allowed the deceased to speak successful the afterlife, including astatine trial Osiris.
Unusual find
The main find was made during an expedition astatine the extremity of 2025: archaeologists discovered papyrus placed there during embalming connected the stomach of 1 of the mummies.
The investigation showed that the text is an excerpt from the Iliad – the so-called “list of ships” from the 2nd song, which lists the Greek troops who went to Troy.
Why is this important
Previously, papyri had already been recovered wrong mummies, but they contained exclusively magical oregon ritual texts successful Greek.
In this lawsuit we are talking astir classic literate workwhich makes the find unprecedented.
Editorial comment
The find shows however profoundly intertwined Egyptian and Greek cultures were during the Roman era.
If antecedently the texts wrong mummies had a strictly ritual meaning, present the question arises: was the fragment of the Iliad used arsenic a symbol, an amulet, oregon simply arsenic a text with a special taste status.
In immoderate case, this is simply a uncommon illustration of however classical lit virtually becomes portion of a ceremonial rite.
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