Copy of Homer’s Iliad found in Roman-era mummy

[guy]

 

Archeologists in Egypt have found a Roman-era mummy containing a papyrus fragment of Homer’s Iliad. This was the first time a Greek literary text has been discovered that had been deliberately placed inside a mummy. The mummy dates from the 4th century AD. 
 

 

Papyrus was used inside mummies because, in Roman‑era Egypt, papyrus bundles were believed to offer protection in the afterlife — but the texts were almost always magical or ritual, not literary. 

Researchers from the Oxyrhynchus mission explain that papyri were placed in the chest or abdomen because they were thought to protect the deceased during the journey to the afterlife.  
This parallels older Egyptian traditions where amulets, spells, and ritual texts safeguarded the dead.

 

https://web.ub.edu/en/web/actualitat/w/oxyrhynchus-iliad-homer

 

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-archaeological-mission-oxyrhynchus-homer-iliad.html