You are looking at one of over half a million pieces of ancient papyrus writing, found in perhaps the most famous trash-heap in history: Oxyrhynchus. Located in Egypt, Oxyrhynchus was a flourishing city between the 200s BCE to the 600s CE, with the sort of weather patterns that make archaeologists’ hearts flutter because they preserve documents so well. The midden, or trash heap, at Oxyrhynchus has turned up ancient plays and poetry, documents from early Christian history, and narrative sources such as histories and novels. Even more instructive, however, have been the ordinary scribbles documenting more mundane life. This script, for instance, was written about a man named Aurelius Aquila, who managed his teenage son’s wrestling career. In fact, he took a bribe in 12 BCE to have his son throw the fight. There is a crowdsourcing project to continue translating the documents today, which are largely stored in Oxford, UK, as a result of 19th-century colonization.
Source(s): Imaging Papyri Project, University of Oxford/Egypt Exploration Society.
