Homer’s Iliad Found on a 1,600-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy

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Archaeologists working at ancient Oxyrhynchus in Egypt discovered a Roman-era mummy dating back about 1,600 years with a papyrus fragment from Homer’s Iliad incorporated into the embalming arrangement. The fragment comes from Book II, the Catalogue of Ships, a famous section describing Greek forces associated with the Trojan War. The unusual part is not simply that an Iliad fragment survived. Papyrus has been found with mummies before, but material associated with burials at this site was generally magical, ritual, or other practical text. Researchers described this find as the first known example from the excavation context of a Greek literary work being incorporated into a mummification arrangement. The discovery also fits the mixed cultural world of Roman Egypt, where Greek language and literature existed alongside Egyptian traditions. Exactly why this particular literary passage was placed with the deceased remains uncertain. It may have had symbolic meaning, but researchers continue to study the fragile papyrus and its funerary context. One recent academic discussion has also cautioned that claims about this being the first intentional burial of an Iliad text should be stated carefully, because earlier examples may complicate that distinction.