Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

In case anyone doesn't know, Oxyrhynchus is a major source of archaeological discoveries. Particularly ancient (Ptolemaic/Roman Egypt) papyrus fragments recovered from an ancient landfill on the outskirts of the city. Notably some of the earliest-known Christian textual artefacts were found there (the actual earliest fragments came from elsewhere in Egypt). It turns out that Egypt's hot and dry climate provides the perfect environment for their long-term preservation.

Sadly, the article says nothing about how old the fragment is or how it compares to other early copies of the Iliad. Somewhat amazingly, the earliest complete copy of the Iliad is from around 950 C.E.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetus_A

On the timescale it's like getting buried today with a copy of Beowulf.

That's a head scratcher.

Why did the person have that fragment? Was it like a comic book or something?

It’s heartbreaking to think of what treasures were lost when they were using mummies as locomotive fuel in the 19th century.

I Hope more and more fragments of anything lost is found.

The burn down of Alexandria library was a pity

According to Iliad 2.645-670, in the direct vicinity of Egypt (notably 1000+ years before those mummies got wrapped) ships from Rhodes (Lindos, Ialysos and Kameiros) and also Crete had taken part in the Trojan War (Knossos and Gortyn, Phaistos and Rhytion).

for some reason this read like the "Headless Body in a Topless Bar" headline...maybe the antiquities equivalent

So why would they bury a man with a book?

Imagine digging in that material. Tunnelling that out would be awful.