A fragment of Homer’s Iliad found inside a mummy: the discovery of ancient Oxyrhynchus in Egypt

To Al Bahnasaancient Oxyrhynchus, in Egypt, the Archaeological Mission of the University of Barcelona concluded the 2025-2026 campaign with a definite discovery unprecedented in the history of archaeology: a papyrus fragment with verses fromHomer’s Iliaddeliberately placed inside the bandaging a mummy from the late Roman era dating back to 4th century AD

The mission, directed by doctors Maite Mascort And Esther Pons Mellado of theInstitute of the Ancient Near Easthas been active on the site since 1992 and it is one of the longest-running Spanish missions in Egypt. The discovery occurred during the excavation campaign conducted between November and December 2025 by the team led by the archaeologist Núria Castellanowithin the so-called Tomb 65. The subsequent study of the find, between January and February 2026, was carried out by the restorer Margalida Munarby the papyrologist Leah Mascia and by the philologist Ignasi-Xavier Adiegoprofessor of Classical Philology at the University of Barcelona.

The papyrus was positioned on the mummy’s abdomen, packaged and sealed as part of the embalming ritual. The reading of the text, conducted by Mascia and identified by Adiego, made it possible to recognize the passage as belonging to the so-called “Catalog of Ships“, the famous song from second canto of the Iliad where they are listed the Greek forces deployed against Troy.

The fact itself is not entirely new: in previous campaigns in Oxyrhynchus the mission had already documented Greek papyri inserted in the embalming process. There differenceHowever, it is substantial. He had never been found a literary text in this context, with all the previous papyri they had magical or ritual content. The presence of the Iliad, the literary text par excellence of Greek culture, it is an unprecedented case.

Tomb 65, despite having already been looted in antiquity, preserved a significant funerary ensemble. The mummies present were wrapped in linen bandages with geometric decorations in bright colorsaccompanied by polychrome wooden sarcophagi. Three mummies had a gold foil in the shape of a tongue in their mouths, a fourth had a copper foil: these were funerary amulets typical of Roman Egyptor, deemed necessary to grant the deceased the ability to speak in the afterlife during the judgment of Osiris. The presence of gold leaf applied to some mummies has led experts to believe that the deceased belonged to a wealthy class of the city.

Excavations in the eastern area of ​​the necropolis have also brought to light the Tomb 67a structure with three limestone chambers containing urns with cremated remains of adults and a newborn, as well as feline bones. In the southern area of ​​the site, terracotta and bronze statuettes depicting Harpocrates (Egyptian-Greek deity) on horseback and Cupid were recovered, demonstrating thesyncretic environment in which Egyptian, Greek and Roman cults coexisted.

The question that scholars have not yet answered is why the papyrus with the Iliad was in that positionor on the abdomen of the deceased. The hypotheses in the field are different: it could be a sign of cultural statusof aexpression of identity linked to the Greek literary traditionor one protective function attributed to the text. The find will be subjected to further epigraphic analyzes to reconstruct its circulation among the elite of Oxyrhynchus in the Roman imperial age.

The Al Bahnasa site is already known for its extraordinary quantity of papyri recovered starting from the end of the nineteenth century, mainly from ancient urban landfills where the desert climate allowed the conservation of materials. The real novelty of this discovery it’s in the context: not a landfill, but a tomb, and not an administrative or magical text, but a literary work.