Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a surprising item inside a 1,600-year-old mummy: a piece of the famous epic poem, the Iliad. The mummy was found in an ancient burial site called Al-Bahnasa, also known as Oxyrhynchus, which is located south of Cairo.
During excavations in late 2025, researchers found a tomb with several mummies from the Roman period. Inside one mummy, an adult male, they discovered a small, fragile piece of papyrus placed on his abdomen.
Specialists carefully studied the papyrus in a lab. They identified the writing as ancient Greek and confirmed it was a fragment from the "Catalogue of Ships" in Book II of Homer's Iliad. This poem, written about 2,700 years ago, describes the Greek ships and soldiers who sailed to attack the city of Troy.
Finding papyri at Oxyrhynchus is common, but this discovery is unique. Usually, papyri found with mummies contain magical spells or religious texts. This is the first time a piece of Greek literature has been intentionally placed within a mummy as part of the burial process.
Experts from the University of Barcelona, who led the dig, believe this shows how Egyptian, Greek, and Roman traditions mixed during this historical period. After Alexander the Great's conquest, Greek became important, and later, Roman culture influenced the area.
This finding suggests the Iliad was valued not just as a story but also as a protective item for the deceased. The papyrus was placed on the abdomen, possibly to guard the person in the afterlife. This ancient poem, meant to remember heroes, was given a new purpose: to guide an individual soul through eternity.