Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Archaeologists in Egypt found something surprising inside an old mummy. It is a small piece of paper called papyrus.
The papyrus has words from a very old poem called the Iliad. The poem was written by a Greek poet named Homer.
The mummy is about 1,600 years old. It was found at a place in Egypt called Oxyrhynchus.
This is the first time anyone has found a piece of a story, not a magic spell, placed inside a mummy on purpose.
- archaeologist
- A scientist who studies old objects and places from the past
- papyrus
- A paper-like material made from a plant, used in ancient Egypt
- poem
- A piece of writing that uses rhythm and careful word choice
- ancient
- Very old, from a long time ago
- mummy
- A dead body that has been preserved, often wrapped in cloth
- discover
- To find something for the first time
- on purpose
- Done deliberately, not by accident
- place (verb)
- To put something somewhere carefully
Level 2 — Elementary
Archaeologists working at the ancient Egyptian site of Oxyrhynchus have found a papyrus fragment from Homer's Iliad placed inside a Roman-era mummy about 1,600 years old.
The mummy was uncovered in Tomb 65 of Sector 22 during excavations carried out between November and December 2025 by the Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission.
The papyrus rested on the mummy's abdomen. Researchers believe it was placed there on purpose as part of the embalming ritual, not left there by accident.
Earlier discoveries at the site had turned up Greek papyri placed the same way, but those texts were always magical or religious spells. This is the first time a literary work like the Iliad has been found in that role.
- fragment
- A small piece broken off from something larger
- Roman-era
- Belonging to the period when Egypt was part of the Roman Empire
- excavation
- The careful digging up of an archaeological site
- abdomen
- The part of the body between the chest and the hips
- embalming
- The process of preserving a dead body, often used in ancient Egypt
- ritual
- A set of actions performed in a fixed, ceremonial way
- religious
- Relating to belief in and worship of a god or gods
- literary work
- A piece of writing valued for its artistic or storytelling quality
Level 3 — Intermediate
Archaeologists with the Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission have uncovered a papyrus fragment from Homer's Iliad inside a Roman-era Egyptian mummy dating back roughly 1,600 years, offering the first archaeological evidence of a Greek literary text deliberately incorporated into a mummification ritual.
The mummy, found in Tomb 65 of Sector 22 during excavations conducted between November and December 2025, was uncovered by a team led by Nuria Castellano, working under the direction of Maite Mascort and Esther Pons through the Institute of Ancient Near East Studies at the University of Barcelona.
The papyrus was found resting on the mummy's abdomen, positioned in a way that suggests it was placed there deliberately by embalmers rather than ending up there by chance.
While the mission had previously uncovered Greek papyri arranged in a similar manner during earlier excavations at the site, those texts were consistently magical or ritual formulas; this marks the first time a literary work, and specifically Homer's Iliad, has been identified serving that role, with the fragment identified as part of the Catalogue of Ships from Book II, the passage listing the Greek forces that sailed to Troy.
- incorporate (into a ritual)
- To include as part of a larger process
- mummification
- The process of preserving a body as a mummy
- excavation
- The careful digging up of an archaeological site
- embalmer
- A person who prepares and preserves a dead body
- formula (ritual formula)
- A fixed set of words used in a ceremony
- identify (a text)
- To determine what a piece of writing is or where it comes from
- passage (of text)
- A short section from a longer piece of writing
- Catalogue of Ships
- The section of the Iliad listing the Greek forces that sailed to Troy
Level 4 — Advanced
Archaeologists with the Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission have unearthed a papyrus fragment from Homer's Iliad deliberately incorporated into the mummification of a Roman-era Egyptian body dating to roughly 1,600 years ago, constituting the first archaeological evidence that a Greek literary text was intentionally woven into funerary ritual rather than included for magical or devotional purposes.
The mummy, recovered from Tomb 65 of Sector 22 during excavations conducted between November and December 2025 under a team led by Nuria Castellano and directed by Maite Mascort and Esther Pons through the Institute of Ancient Near East Studies at the University of Barcelona, yielded a papyrus positioned atop the abdomen in a manner consistent with intentional placement by embalmers rather than incidental deposition.
Previous excavations at Oxyrhynchus had already documented Greek papyri arranged in comparable positions within earlier mummies, but those texts were invariably magical incantations or ritual formulas rather than literature, making the present find, a passage from the celebrated Catalogue of Ships in Book II of the Iliad enumerating the Greek contingents that sailed for Troy, a striking departure from established precedent.
The discovery raises intriguing questions about how a canonical work of Greek literature came to be treated as an object of ritual efficacy within an Egyptian embalming tradition centuries removed from Homer's own era, and researchers say it may prompt a reassessment of how thoroughly literary texts, and not merely magical ones, were woven into the material culture of death in Roman-era Egypt.
- unearth
- To discover something buried or hidden
- funerary
- Relating to funerals or the burial of the dead
- devotional
- Relating to religious worship or observance
- incidental
- Happening as a minor accompaniment to something else, by chance
- incantation
- A series of words said as a magic spell
- precedent
- An earlier event or example used as a guide for later cases
- canonical (a canonical work)
- Recognized as an authoritative or classic example of its kind
- material culture
- The physical objects and structures created by a society
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