First-of-Its-Kind Discovery: Homer’s Iliad Found Embedded in a 1,600-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy

Archaeologists at Oxyrhynchus found a papyrus fragment from Homer’s Iliad inside a Roman-era mummy.

The fragment, from Book II and the Catalogue of Ships, had been placed on the body during embalming.

It is the first known literary papyrus discovered in a funerary context, not just as a discarded text.

The find offers rare evidence that Greek literature could be used in burial and embalming practices in Roman Egypt.