Papyrus

Oxyrhynchus papyri are documents mostly from the Roman and early Christian era of ancient Egypt that were found by Oxford classicists in rubbish heaps of the formerly important Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus.

Oxyrhynchus is also known as waste paper city. Read the basics on Oxyrhynchus.

Review of Lionel Casson's Libraries in the Ancient World.

One of the materials on which ancient scribes wrote was the Egyptian reed called Papyrus. The study of ancient writing on papyrus is known as papyrology.

Pictures showing jobs in ancient Egypt.

The Edwin Smith medical papyrus is impressive enough as a large surviving papyrus but even more so because it is the first extant surgical papyrus.

Before the Egyptian papyrus horde was discovered in 1896-97, by B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt of Oxford, Herculaneum had provided the largest repository of ancient texts preserved by the debris from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

One of the best places to find Greek papyrus writing is Egypt. Starting with Alexander's general Ptolemy Soter, Greek was spoken (and written) there for a millennium.

Site of the American Society of Papyrologists.

Lost works of ancient writers like Sappho and Menander have been discovered in the last century. These papyri are being made available online through a collaboration of six American universities and one European institution.

Introduction to the Coptic Church of Egypt, with some information on the manuscript tradition.

Email list for those interested in papyrology or ancient history. Discussion not limited to English.

Homepage with information on ASP membership, publications, meetings, and some links.

Oxyrhynchus had been an important Egyptian city, but little besides nearby rubbish heaps remain. From these piles, 65 volumes of transcripts, texts, translations, and commentaries have been published so far. Much is correspondence, contracts, and lists -- the stuff of daily life. There are also ancient papyrus texts.

From University of Michigan, a collection of references on the following topics: Onomastica, Grammars, Epistolography, Journals, Palaeography, Agriculture, Chronology, Magic, Titulature, Law, Monograph Series, Abbreviations, Economy and Taxation, Codicology, General History and Handbooks and General Works on Papyrology.

Introduction to papyrology and the collection of papyri at Duke.

In the town dumps of Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, where water never permeated, perhaps 50,000 everyday documents from Greco-Roman antiquity were preserved.

Egyptian Book of the Dead, translated by E.A. Wallis Budge.

Glossary entry on Egyptian papyrus.