Archaeologists have discovered a papyrus copy of part of Homer’s Iliad inside the abdomen of a mummy at Al-Bahnasa in Egypt.
The researchers describe it as the first time a Greek literary text has been found incorporated into the mummification process. The discovery has significant implications for the study of burial practices and religious life in ancient Egypt.
According to reporting by The Independent, the papyrus fragment was found in the abdomen of a mummy buried at Oxyrhynchus during the Roman period, around 1,600 years ago. Known in Pharaonic times as Per-Medjed, Oxyrhynchus was one of the most important cities in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Its remains lie at modern-day Al-Bahnasa, around 190 kilometres south of Cairo, beside the Nile waterway known as the Bahr Yussef.
Researchers from the University of Barcelona’s Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies discovered the mummy during excavations between November and December 2025. They noticed something unusual: a papyrus had been placed in its abdomen as part of the embalming ritual.
Egyptian mummies from the same period have previously been found with papyri written in Greek, but their contents were magical or ritual texts. Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, a professor in the Department of Classical, Romance and Semitic Philology, said this was not the first discovery of Greek papyri bound, sealed and incorporated into mummification, but that earlier examples had mainly contained magical material.
The professor also noted that vast numbers of papyri had been discovered at Oxyrhynchus since the late 19th century, including Greek literary texts of great importance. The novelty, he explained, lay in finding a literary papyrus in a funerary context.
A fragment from the Catalogue of Ships
The researchers say the Iliad papyrus marks the first discovery of a Greek literary text in an embalming context. The passage identified during the recent excavation includes part of the “Catalogue of Ships”, the famous section listing the Greek forces assembled before Troy.
