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

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

The fragment was placed on the mummy’s abdomen during embalming and comes from the Catalogue of Ships in Book 2.

Researchers say this is the first evidence of a literary Greek papyrus intentionally reused in a funerary context.

The discovery sheds new light on burial practices and text recycling in Roman Egypt.