The Oxyrhynchus Papyri

This is just generally cool. As reported in National Geographic (among other places) in an article entitled Papyrus Reveals New Clues to Ancient World, Oxford University scientists are using a multi-spectral imaging technique to read ancient papyrus documents that have faded.

Salvaged from an ancient garbage dump in Egypt, the collection is kept at Oxford University in England. Known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, the collection includes writings by great classical Greek authors such as Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides.

Using a technique called multi-spectral imaging, researchers have uncovered texts that include

parts of a lost tragedy by Sophocles, the 5th-century B.C. Athenian playwright;

sections of a long-vanished novel by Lucian, the second-century Greek writer; and

an epic poem by Archilochos, which describes events that led to the Trojan War.

. . .

Researchers hope to rediscover examples of lost Christian gospels which didn’t make it into the New Testament, along with other important classical writings.

The papyrus manuscripts were found at the site of the disappeared town of Oxyrhynchus in central Egypt more than a hundred years ago. The text in much of the collection has become obscured or faded over time.

. . .
[T]he Oxyrhynchus collection holds a lot of information about the rise of Christianity during the Roman period. (Egypt became part of the Roman Empire after Cleopatra’s fleet was defeated at the battle of Actium in 31 B.C.).

“[Christianity] starts out as a small social phenomenon, then just takes over everything,” Obbink said. “You can see other cultural sea changes taking place—changes in taxes, changes in rule. It’s all reflected in the papyrus.”
. . .
So far 65 volumes of transcripts and translations have been published by the London-based Egypt Exploration Society, which owns the collection.

The latest volume includes details of fragments showing third- and fourth-century versions of the Book of Revelations. Intriguingly, the number assigned to “the Beast” of Revelations isn’t the usual 666, but 616.

About 10 percent of the Oxyrhynchus hoard is literary. The rest consists of documents, including wills, bills, horoscopes, tax assessments, and private letters.

“It contains a complete slice of life,” Obbink added. “There’s everything from Sophocles and Homer to sex manuals and steamy novels. But it’s in pieces, and it all has to be put back together.”