City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek Lives in Roman Egypt

How an ancient rubbish dump has given us a unique view of life 2,000 years ago

In 1897 two Oxford archaeologists began digging a mound south of Cairo. Ten years later, they had uncovered 500,000 fragments of papyri. Shipped back to Oxford, the meticulous and scholarly work of deciphering these fragments began. It is still going on today. As well as Christian writings from totally unknown gospels and Greek poems not seen by human eyes since the fall of Rome, there are tax returns, petitions, ...