Oxyrhynchus Papyri

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are manuscripts recovered from ancient rubbish deposits near Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. They preserve literary, documentary, and religious texts, mostly written in Greek.

Oxyrhynchus: An ancient Egyptian city, now associated with the archaeological site of el-Bahnasa. The manuscripts were discarded and preserved in rubbish deposits outside this city.
Bernard Grenfell: An English papyrologist and archaeologist who excavated at Oxyrhynchus with Arthur Hunt. He co-led the expeditions that began recovering the papyri in 1896.
New Testament apocrypha: Early Christian writings about Jesus and his followers that were not included in the New Testament canon. The collection includes fragments of otherwise lost or little-known Christian works.
Radiocarbon dating: A method for estimating the age of once-living materials by measuring radioactive carbon decay. It can help date papyrus when handwriting and archaeological context leave uncertainty.
Lost literary works: Works known to have existed in antiquity but no longer survive as complete texts. Oxyrhynchus fragments have restored passages from works otherwise lost.
Papyrus: A writing material made from strips of the pith of the papyrus plant. Most manuscripts in the collection were written on this material.
Arthur Hunt: An English papyrologist who excavated at Oxyrhynchus with Bernard Grenfell. He co-directed the early excavations and helped publish their discoveries.
Gospel of Thomas: An early Christian sayings collection attributed to Jesus, preserved completely in a Coptic manuscript and partly in Greek fragments. Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus preserve an early form of this text.
Paleography: The study of historical handwriting and scripts. Handwriting styles help editors estimate when individual papyri were written.
Documentary papyri: Papyri recording practical matters such as contracts, petitions, accounts, and correspondence. These finds expose everyday transactions often absent from literary histories.

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