The ancient Oxyrhynchus Papyri, discovered years ago in Egypt have
succumbed to modern technology, and are being rapidly
deciphered, according to a
report in The Independent.
“In the past four days alone, Oxford’s classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing
discoveries, including writing by
Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient world, lost for millennia.
They even believe they are likely to find lost Christian gospels, the originals of which
were written around the time of the earliest books of the New Testament.”
Wow. The papyri were discovered over a century ago and constitute 400,000 fragments. It is
reckoned that their deciphering will increase the available ancient texts by over
a fifth. And it’s a transatlantic project. “Oxford academics have been working alongside
infra-red specialists from Brigham Young University, Utah. ”
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