Archaeologists have found a papyrus copy of Homer’s Iliad in the gut of an ancient Egyptian mummy, the first time ever that a Greek literary text has been found incorporated into the preservation process.
The discovery has big implications for our knowledge of funerary practices and religious life in ancient Egypt.
The papyrus fragment was discovered in the abdomen of a mummy buried in a Roman-era tomb in Oxyrhynchus around 1,600 years ago.
Oxyrhynchus, known in the Pharaonic times as Per-Medjed, was one of the most important cities of Greco-Roman Egypt. Its remains are in the present-day town of Al-Bahnasa, about 190km south of Cairo, next to the branch of the Nile known as Bahr Yussef.
Researchers from the Institute of Ancient Near East Studies at the University of Barcelona found the mummy during a recent excavation campaign carried out between November and December 2025.
They found the mummy featured an unusual element, a papyrus placed on the abdomen as part of the embalming ritual.
Egyptian mummies from this period have previously been found to carry papyri written in Greek, but they have all carried text of magical or ritualistic content.
The discovery of the Iliad papyrus marks the first time that a Greek literary text has been found in the embalming context, researchers note.
The epic poem, divided into 24 books, is attributed to Homer and dates back to 800BC.
It mainly focuses on the Trojan War and the heroic deeds and tragic fate of Achilles, the mightiest warrior of the Greek army.
The poem unfolds a few weeks into the final year of the war, depicting the wrath of Achilles after he’s slighted by the Greek commander Agamemnon, delving into themes of pride, fate, honour, and mortality.
It combines elements of ancient Greek culture and mythology, providing valuable insights into the values of the ancient Greeks, continuing to be relevant even in modern times, inspiring countless adaptations.
The identified Iliad text in the recent dig belongs to the catalogue of ships in Book II of the epic poem, researchers say.
It contains a famous passage listing the Greek forces massing before Troy.
Researchers said they were unsure why this particular Greek text was chosen for the mummification process.
Roman-era mummification in Oxyrhynchus combined traditional Egyptian, Greek, and Roman customs.
Ancient Egyptian priests of the time focused on preserving bodies for over 40 days, using natron salt to dehydrate them and wrapping them up in linen.
Instead of using traditional canopic jars to preserve organs, they preferred to pack the body with preserved materials along with papyri containing Greek literature sealed with clay inside the chest or pelvic cavity.
Coffins and wrappings frequently displayed a mixture of Egyptian and Roman motifs.
“This is not the first time we have found Greek papyri, bundled, sealed, and incorporated into the mummification process, but until now, their content was mainly magical,” Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, a professor in the Department of Classical, Romance and Semitic Languages, said.
“Furthermore, it is worth noting that since the late 19th century, a huge number of papyri have been discovered at Oxyrhynchus, including Greek literary texts of great importance, but the real novelty is finding a literary papyrus in a funerary context.”
So far, excavations at Oxyrhynchus have revealed three limestone chambers containing Roman-era mummies and decorated wooden sarcophagi.
Previous campaigns in the ancient city led to the discovery of 52 Ptolemaic-era mummies, of which over a dozen had “golden tongues”, a symbol of preparation for the afterlife.
