A Mummy First...
Spanish Archaeologists unearth an Egyptian mummy with a passage from Homer’s “Iliad” stuck to its abdomen, in a first-of-its-kind discovery.
While other mummies in the area have been found with sealed packages containing papyri with what appear to be ritualistic formulas placed on them as part of the embalming process, this is the first time that a literary text has been found, Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, a classical philologist at the University of Barcelona, Spain, told CNN on Thursday.
“This is the big development for us,” said Adiego, who’s part of a team that’s been working at the site for years.
“Until now, we didn’t know that they would have used literary texts as part of this funerary ritual,” he added.
While other mummies in the area have been found with sealed packages containing papyri with what appear to be ritualistic formulas placed on them as part of the embalming process, this is the first time that a literary text has been found, Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, a classical philologist at the University of Barcelona, Spain, told CNN on Thursday.
“This is the big development for us,” said Adiego, who’s part of a team that’s been working at the site for years.
“Until now, we didn’t know that they would have used literary texts as part of this funerary ritual,” he added.
