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Oxyrhynchus papyri

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by generallobus (U1869191) on Friday, 21st July 2006

  There was a fascinating programme on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ2 last night. It was about a hoard of papyri which were excavated by 2 Oxford fellow for 10 years from 1896 from a greco-roman settlement on the Nile. The inhabitants had disposed of literally thousands of fragments of papyrus over a 500 hundred year period (approx).
  
  A lot of the fragments are everyday personal messages, very similar to the Roman tablets from Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall. These are wonderful, giving an insight into the everyday lives of the inhabitants, inc. a lot of magical incantations.
  
  What excited me most however, were the fragments that contained works by some of the Classical poets and playwrites. There were poems by Sappho, comedies by Menander and a satyr comedy from Sophocles. As only 1 percent of the fragments have been deciphered and published the potential for extending our knowledge of the ancient world is immense.
  
  If this wasn't enough the 2 scholars also rerturned with face masks for mummies. These were made from rolled up full papyri. With new techniques available to view these we may well be heading for a huge addition to the ancient corpus of work.
  
  I haven't been this excited by archaeology for ages. It feels as though we may be on the verge of rediscovering so much lost for so long. Dare I say it - some of the contents of the Library of Alexandria

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by fascinating (U1944795) on Friday, 21st July 2006

  genarallobus, yes, fascinating eh?
  
  You can get a book of selections of the oxyrynchus papyri, in the Loeb classical series, I think.
  
  Regarding the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ program, I felt they concentrated rather too much on the ancient plays and not enough of the everyday life aspects, but that is my personal opinion.
  
  One of the items is the municipal water account, showing how much they had to pay to all the workers operating the pumps for the fountains at the temple etc.
  
  Others show depositions to police for lost goods.
  
  Then there is a pay chit (or rather bank statement) of a Roman soldier, showing various deductions for uniform items.
  
  Did you know that, at Herculaneum, there are hundreds of unopened scrolls found in house that had a library?

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  Posted by generallobus (U1869191) on Friday, 21st July 2006

  Indeed fascinating. I believe the papyri already uncovered from Herculaneum relate to various aspects of Epicurian philosophy. More details can be found via the Philodemus project.
  
  Getting back to the Oxyrhynchus papyri, I agree that the personal aspects were overlooked a bit. And it's exactly these aspects of everyday life that are so enthralling.
  
  Cheers

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• Message 4

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  Posted by RainbowFfolly (U3345048) on Friday, 21st July 2006

  Hi General,
  
  It was a great programme - and as someone who loves the classics, any chance of new material appearing makes me weak at the knees! Even the personal letters were fascinating - especially the guy who claimed he had cataracts to get out of paying any tax...
  
  Why didn't the hosts post a message on the board that this programme was on last night? In fact, why don't they post a message when any historical programme is going to be on? hmmm... Maybe with all that TV licence money they have, they're not concerned about viewing figures...
  
  RF

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• Message 5

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  Posted by generallobus (U1869191) on Friday, 21st July 2006

  Dunno rainbowffolly, maybe there's some kinda inter departmental rivalry between the the bbc lot and they're all a bit precious about their areas of responsibility You would have thought that it would be the perfect thing to advertise on these boards tho'.

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• Message 6

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  Posted by fascinating (U1944795) on Friday, 21st July 2006

  To all, here is my opinion on the matter. The terrestrial Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ channels have largely been given over to goldfish-attention-span trash. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ2 particularly has been dumbed down.
  
  But the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ to its credit has created Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ4, self-conciously with a more 'learned' aim. (We will pass over the fact that our licence money is being wasted by trashing one channel, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ2, then trying to recreate something like it, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ4, which is only available with the silly set-top box).
  
  The oxyrynchus program was first shown on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ4. Of course, being the new dumbed down Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, there had to be as many references to sex as possible. Still, the program was very good overall.
  
  It has recently surfaced on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ2 but rather late at night - in other words it was a repeat, put there because there was nothing else to put in its place, and the planners did not think there would be much interest in such academic stuff.

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• Message 7

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  Posted by rheidol (U898537) on Friday, 21st July 2006

  For a different slant on this story, see Tony Harrison's play "The Trackers of Oxyrhyncus" of 1988 (published by Faber)- stage-managing this was how I first became aware of the finds, & it's a very funny & moving piece, mixing the discovery of the papyri with the texts resurrected from the desert. I enjoyed the documentary very much when it was originally shown on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ4.

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• Message 8

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  Posted by generallobus (U1869191) on Friday, 21st July 2006

  I've just read some of the text, rheidol. Thanks for pointing me in that direction. I've always enjoyed Barry Rutter's approach to theatre (what a perfect name for a satyr, btw).
  
  cheers

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• Message 9

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  Posted by Idamante (U1894562) on Saturday, 22nd July 2006

  they also quoted a new-found bit of poetry by Archilochus about the Trojan War, does anyone know where I can find the (English) text they used?

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