SerpApi.Org
In Egypt, a 1,600-year-old mummy has turned up with an unexpected companion: a fragment of Homer's Iliad placed on the body during embalming.
Researchers believe this is the first recorded example of a Greek literary text being deliberately used in mummification, rather than a document intended for magic or ritual.
What happened?
Late-2025 excavations produced the find in Tomb 65 of Sector 22 at ancient Oxyrhynchus, now Al Bahnasa: a Roman-era mummy with a papyrus resting on its abdomen, according to ScienceDaily.
Between November and December 2025, archaeologist Núria Castellano's team first recovered the mummy during work by the Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission, which operates through the University of Barcelona's Institute of Ancient Near East Studies under archaeologists Maite Mascort and Esther Pons.
In a follow-up research campaign in early 2026, conservator Margalida Munar, papyrologist Leah Mascia, and Ignasi-Xavier Adiego — a professor in the Department of Classical, Romance and Semitic Languages and director of the Oxyrhynchus project — examined the delicate fragment.
After Mascia read the text, Adiego identified it as part of the Iliad's Book II "Catalogue of Ships," the section that names the Greek forces heading to Troy.
Why does it matter?
Oxyrhynchus is already one of the most important papyrus sites in the ancient world, but this find stands out because of both where the text was found and how it appears to have been used.
Researchers said Greek papyri had been found in mummification before, but those earlier texts were associated with magic or ritual practice.
Many tombs in the necropolis had been looted, leaving several objects in poor condition.
What's being done?
The University of Barcelona's mission has worked at Oxyrhynchus since 1992 and is considered one of Spain's longest-running archaeology projects in Egypt. Its latest field season, spanning November 2025 to February 2026, yielded several discoveries researchers called historically significant.
Alongside Roman-era mummies and painted wooden sarcophagi, the broader excavation uncovered a funerary complex of three limestone burial chambers. Researchers said identifying the Iliad fragment required painstaking conservation work and detailed textual analysis.
Support for the project comes from the Ministry of Culture, the University of Barcelona, the Palarq Foundation, the Catalan Egyptology Society, and AIXA Serveis Arqueològics. The team also works with Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and Cairo University.
"Until now, their content was mainly magical," Adiego said of earlier papyri found in mummification.
In this case, he added, "The real novelty is finding a literary papyrus in a funerary context."
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