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Egyptian mummy unearthed with literary text on abdomen in first-ever find
Researchers say the fragment is the first literary papyrus ever found deliberately incorporated into a mummy, and it may have served a funerary role.
- Archaeologists uncovered a 1,600-year-old Roman-era mummy in Al Bahnasa, Egypt, containing a fragment of Homer's Iliad on papyrus placed on its abdomen, marking the first discovery of a literary text used in embalming rituals.
- The papyrus is fragmented and identified as part of the catalogue of ships from Book II of the Iliad, written in Greek and still under preliminary study.
- Previous finds at the site included mummies with ritualistic papyri, but this is the first time a literary work has been integrated into the embalming process, suggesting an unusual funerary practice.
- The excavation also revealed mummies with gold or copper foil on their tongues to aid communication with gods, and jars containing burned human and animal remains.
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Spanish archeologists made an important finding in Egypt. It is a thousand-600-year-old mummy. The most impressive thing is that it had stuck in its abdomen a passage from Homer's "Iliad", about a description of the participants in the Greek campaign against Troy, known as "The Catalogue of Ships." It is the first time that a text of literature is found in an Egyptian funerary ritual, since so far, it had only found papyrus ritual formulas. Mumm…
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