Archaeologists Find Homer's Iliad Papyrus Fragment Inside 1,600-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy

Archaeologists uncovered a papyrus fragment of Homer’s “The Iliad” inside the abdomen of a 1,600-year-old mummy, marking a first-of-its-kind discovery in mummification practices. The fragment, written in Greek, includes a section from Book Two of the ancient epic, which details the legendary Trojan War.

Researchers from the University of Barcelona said the fragment names the catalog of ships used against the city of Troy and was likely placed inside the mummy’s abdomen during embalming.

The discovery occurred during an excavation of a Roman Empire-era Egyptian tomb between November and December 2025, with the announcement made this month. Scientists stated this is the first time in recorded history that a Greek literary text has been found incorporated into a mummification ritual.

The University of Barcelona’s Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission had previously documented Greek papyri tucked inside mummies in similar positions, but those texts were always magical or ritualistic.

“The real novelty is finding a literary papyrus in a funerary context,” said Professor Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, who helped lead the research campaign. Adiego noted that a huge number of papyri have been discovered at Oxyrhynchus since the late 19th century, including Greek literary texts of great importance.

The male mummy was found inside Tomb 65 at the Al-Bahnasa necropolis, the site of ancient Oxyrhynchus, which sits roughly 190 miles south of Cairo.

The same dig turned up three gold tongues and one copper tongue, objects placed in the mouths of the dead so they could speak to the gods in the afterlife. Previous excavations at the cemetery recovered more than a dozen mummies with gold tongues, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.