A 1,600-year-old Egyptian mummy was found with Homer’s Iliad tucked inside its abdomen. Its purpose remains a mystery

Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered an extraordinary piece of ancient literature in an unexpected place: inside the embalming process of a Roman-era mummy.

The discovery was made earlier this year at Al Bahnasa, the site of ancient Oxyrhynchus, about 190 kilometers south of Cairo. A team from the University of Barcelona identified fragments of a papyrus containing part of Homer’s Iliad in a tomb dating to roughly 1,600 years ago.

What makes the find especially unusual is not simply the age of the papyrus. It was deliberately placed on the mummy’s abdomen as part of the embalming process.


Researchers say this is the first known case in which a Greek literary text has been found deliberately incorporated into the mummification of a body. Earlier discoveries at Oxyrhynchus had produced Greek papyri in similar positions, but those texts were mainly magical or ritual in nature.

The papyrus contains a famous passage from Homer

The fragment comes from Book II of the Iliad, specifically the famous Catalogue of Ships.

The passage lists the Greek forces assembled for the Trojan War, making it one of the most recognizable sections of Homer’s epic.

The Iliad itself was composed many centuries before the mummy was buried. By the Roman period, Homer’s works were already established as major works of Greek literature.

The fragment was identified during analysis conducted in January and February 2026. Papyrologist Leah Mascia read the surviving text, while classical philologist Ignasi-Xavier Adiego identified it as part of the Catalogue of Ships.

But there is still a major mystery: why was a piece of Homer placed on a dead body?

Archaeologists don't know why it was placed there

The researchers have not yet determined what purpose the literary papyrus served.

Previous papyri found in comparable funerary positions at Oxyrhynchus contained magical or ritual material, which could plausibly have been intended to protect the deceased.

A fragment of the Iliad is much harder to explain.

One possibility is that the text had some symbolic meaning. Another is that the papyrus was connected to the embalming process itself. Researchers have also noted that it could simply have been reused material, although its deliberate placement makes the discovery particularly intriguing.

Adiego said the real novelty was finding a literary papyrus in a funerary context after previous discoveries had mainly involved magical material.

That leaves archaeologists with an unusual glimpse into how literature may have been viewed in Roman Egypt—not simply as something to read, copy or study, but potentially as something that could carry meaning beyond everyday use.

The mummy came from a looted Roman-era tomb

The discovery was made in Tomb 65 in Sector 22 of the Al Bahnasa necropolis during an excavation campaign between November and December 2025.

The wider funerary complex contained three limestone chambers, Roman-era mummies and decorated wooden sarcophagi. Many of the remains had been damaged by ancient looting.

The mummy containing the Homeric papyrus was one of several remains uncovered at the site.

The condition of the papyrus is poor, and researchers have so far studied it using methods that do not damage the fragile material. More advanced imaging could potentially reveal additional text, but the team has not yet had the opportunity to examine it using techniques such as X-rays.

That means the fragment may still have more to tell researchers.

Why Oxyrhynchus is so important

The discovery also adds another remarkable chapter to the history of Oxyrhynchus.

The ancient Egyptian city has been famous for more than a century for the enormous quantity of papyri preserved there. Archaeologists have recovered everything from everyday documents and administrative records to important Greek literary works.

The University of Barcelona's Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission has been working at the site since 1992.

Yet even at a site so closely associated with ancient writing, finding a literary work physically incorporated into a mummy was something researchers had never encountered before.

The discovery therefore does not rewrite what scholars know about Homer or the Iliad. Instead, it raises a more intriguing question about the ancient world: what did a passage of one of the greatest works of Greek literature mean to the people who placed it beside the dead?

For now, archaeologists do not have a definitive answer. But the 1,600-year-old fragment suggests that Homer’s words may have occupied a role in ancient life that extended far beyond the classroom, library or scroll.