Oxyrhynchus (Greek: Οξύρυγχος; "sharp-nosed"; ancient Egyptian Per-Medjed; modern Egyptian Arabic el-Bahnasa) is an archaeological site in Egypt, considered one of the most important ever discovered. For the past century, the area around Oxyrhynchus has been continually excavated, yielding an enormous collection of papyrus texts from the Greek and Roman periods of Egyptian history. Among the texts discovered at Oxyrhynchus are plays of Menander and the Gospel of Thomas, an important early Gnostic document. Egyptian Arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in Egypt - and more specifically, the prestige dialect spoken in the northern Nile Delta region and its urban centers Cairo and Alexandria. ... An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been investigated using the discipline of archaeology. ... Papyrus plant Cyperus papyrus at Kew Gardens, London Papyrus is an early form of paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that grows to 5 meters (15 ft) in height and was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt. ... The conquests of Alexander the Great brought Egypt within the orbit of the Greek world for almost 900 years. ... Hathor The history of Egypt is the longest continuous history, as a unified state, of any country in the world. ... For the Indo-Greek king (160–135 BC) see Menander the Just. ... The Gospel of Thomas, completely preserved in a papyrus Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, is a list of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. ... Gnosticism is a blanket term for various religions and sects most prominent in the first few centuries A.D. General characteristics The word gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden mysticism (esoteric knowledge) that only a few possess. ...

Etymology

The town was named after a species of fish of the Nile River which was important in Egyptian mythology as the fish that ate the penis of Osiris, though it is not known exactly which species of fish this is. One possibility is a species of mormyrid, medium sized freshwater fish that figure in various Egyptian and other artworks. Some species of mormyrid have distinctive downturned snouts or barbels, lending them the common name of elephantnoses among aquarists and ichthyologists. A figurine from Oxyrhynchus of one of these sacred fish has many attributes typical of mormyrids: a long anal fin, a small caudal fin, widely spaced pelvic and pectoral fins, and of course the downturned snout.[1] Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus: the most abundant species of fish in the world. ... There is also Nile, a death metal band from South Carolina, USA. The Nile in Egypt Length 6 695 km Elevation of the source 1 134 m Average discharge 2 830 m³/s Area watershed 3 400 000 km² Origin Africa Mouth the Mediterranean Basin countries Uganda - Sudan - Egypt The... Egyptian mythology or Egyptian religion is the succession of tentative beliefs held by the people of Egypt for over three thousand years, prior to major exposure to Christianity and Islam. ... Osiris (Greek language, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, or Ausare) is the Egyptian God of the dead and the underworld. ... Subfamilies Mormyrinae Petrocephalinae The familly Mormyridae, sometimes called Elephantfish, are freshwater fishes native to Africa. ... Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. ...

History

Oxyrhynchus is about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo, and lies west of the main course of the Nile, on the Bahr Yussef (Canal of Joseph), a branch of the Nile that terminates in Lake Moeris and the Fayum oasis. In ancient Egyptian times, there was a town on the site called Per-Medjed, but it did not become an important area until after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. It was then reestablished as a Greek town, called Oxyrhynchon Polis ("town of the sharp-nosed fish"). Cairo (Arabic: ‎ translit: ) is the capital city of Egypt (and previously the United Arab Republic) and has a metropolitan area population of approximately 15. ... The Bahr Yussef, which roughly translates from Arabic as the waterway of Joseph, is a canal which connects the Nile River with Fayyum in Egypt. ... Lake Moeris was an ancient lake located in the Fayum depression, 80 km southwest of Cairo in Egypt. ... Al Fayyum is one of the governorates of Egypt located in the centre of the country. ... Ancient Egypt was a civilization located along the Lower Nile, reaching from the Nile Delta in the north to as far south as Jebel Barkal at the time of its greatest extension (15th century BC). ... Alexander the Great (in Greek , transliterated Megas Alexandros) (Alexander III of Macedon) was born in Pella, Macedon, in July, 356 BC, died in Babylon, on June 10, 323 BC, King of Macedon 336–323 BC, is considered one of the most successful military commanders in world history (if not the...

In Hellenistic times, Oxyrhynchus was a prosperous regional capital, the third-largest city in Egypt. After Egypt was christianized, it became famous for its many churches and monasteries. It remained a prominent, though gradually declining, town in the Roman and Byzantine periods. After the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641, the canal system on which the town depended fell into disrepair, and Oxyrhynchus was abandoned. Today the town of el-Bahnasa occupies part of the ancient site. St Francis Xavier converting the Paravas: a 19th-century image of the docile heathen Ansgar, the 9th century apostle of the North in an 1830 drawing. ... A church building (or simply church) is a building used in Christian worship. ... The Tikse monastery in Ladakh, India A monastery is the habitation of monks, derived from the Greek word for a hermits cell. ... Byzantine Empire (Greek: ) is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ... The Arabs (Arabic: عرب ) are a large and heterogeneous ethnic group found throughout the Middle East and North Africa, originating in the Arabian Peninsula of southwest Asia. ... There are few remains at Oxyrhynchus to be seen above ground: its treasures lie beneath the sands Oxyrhynchus (Greek: Οξύρυγχος; sharp-nosed; ancient Egyptian Per-Medjed; modern Arabic el-Bahnasa) is an archaeological site in Egypt, considered one of the most important ever discovered. ...

For more than 1000 years, the inhabitants of Oxyrhynchus dumped garbage at a series of sites out in the desert sands beyond the town limits. The fact that the town was built on a canal rather than on the Nile itself was important, because this meant that the area did not flood every year with the rising of the river, as did the districts along the riverbank. When the canals dried up, the water table fell and never rose again. The area west of the Nile has virtually no rain, so the garbage dumps of Oxyrhynchus were gradually covered with sand and were forgotten for another 1000 years.

Because Egyptian society under the Greeks and Romans was governed bureaucratically, and because Oxyrhynchus was the capital of the 19th nome, the material at the Oxyrhynchus dumps included vast amounts of paper. Accounts, tax returns, census material, invoices, receipts, correspondence on administrative, military, religious, economic and political matters, certificates and licenses of all kinds—all these were periodically cleaned out of government offices, put in wicker baskets, and dumped out in the desert. Private citizens added their own piles of unwanted paper. Because papyrus was expensive, paper was often reused: a document might have farm accounts on one side, and a student's text of Homer on the other. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, therefore, contained a complete record of the life of the town, and of the civilizations and empires of which the town was a part. The nomes of Ancient Egypt A nome (Greek: district) is a subnational administrative division of Ancient Egypt. ... Bust of Homer in the British Museum For the fictional character in The Simpsons, see Homer Simpson. ... The word civilization (or civilisation) has a variety of meanings related to human society. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

The town site of Oxyrhynchus itself has never been excavated, because the modern Egyptian town is on top of it. But it is believed that the city had many public buildings, including a theatre with a capacity of 11,000 spectators, a hippodrome, four public baths, a gymnasium, and two small ports on the Bahr Yusuf. It is also likely that there were military buildings, such as barracks, since the city supported a military garrison on several occasions during the Roman and Byzantine periods. During the Greek and Roman periods, Oxyrhynchus had temples to Serapis, Zeus-Amun, Hera-Isis, Atargatis-Bethnnis and Osiris. There were also Greek temples to Demeter, Dionysius, Hermes, and Apollo; there were also Roman temples to Jupiter Capitolinus and Mars. In the Christian era, Oxyrhynchus was the seat of a bishopric, and the town still has several ancient Coptic Christian churches. A Hippodrome (Gr. ... The gymnasium of the Greeks originally functioned as the school where competitors in the public games received their training, and was so named from the circumstance that these competitors exercised naked (gymnos). ... Barracks is usally used to connote a type of military housing. ... Serapis can refer to: A series of British ships named HMS Serapis. ... Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ... Amun (also spelt Amon, Amoun, Amen, and rarely Imenand, and spelt in Greek as Ammon, and Hammon) was the name of a deity, in Egyptian mythology, who gradually rose to become one of the most important, before disappearing back into the shadows. ... In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hêra (World Book «HIHR uh») (Greek or ) was the wife and sister of Zeus. ... It has been suggested that Isis in literature be merged into this article or section. ... Atargatis, in Aramaic ‘Atar‘atah, was a Syrian deity, more commonly known to the Greeks by a shortened form of the name, Derceto or Derketo (Strabo 16. ... Osiris (Greek language, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, or Ausare) is the Egyptian God of the dead and the underworld. ... The Greeks began to build monumental temples in the first half of the 8th century BC. The temples of Hera at Samos and of Poseidon at Isthmia were among the first erected. ... This article is about the grain goddess Demeter; for other uses, see Demeter (disambiguation). ... Several people in history have been known by the name Dionysius: Dionysius of Syracuse, a tyrant Dionysius the Elder, a Greek mythological figure Dionysius the Areopagite, a citizen of Corinth who was converted by Paul of Tarsus Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, identified by some with a Georgian theologist Peter the... Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, by Praxiteles Hermes (Greek IPA ), in Greek mythology, is the god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of orators, literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures and invention and commerce in general, of liars, and of... Statue of Apollo at the British Museum. ... The Temple of Hercules Victor, near the Teatro di Marcello in Rome (a Greek-style Roman temple) // Pagan history and architecture Originally in Roman paganism, a templum was not (necessarily) a cultic building but any ritually marked observation site for natural phenomena believed to allow predictions, such as the flight... Jupiter et Thétis - by Jean Ingres, 1811. ... Mars was the Roman god of war, the son of Juno and a magical flower (or Jupiter). ... In some Christian churches, the diocese is an administrative territorial unit governed by a bishop, sometimes also referred to as a bishopric or episcopal see, though more often the term episcopal see means the office held by the bishop. ... Jesus Christ in a Coptic icon. ...

When Flinders Petrie visited Oxyrhynchus in 1922, he found remains of the colonnades and theatre. Now a single column meets the eye: everything else has been scavenged for building material for modern housing. Egyptologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (3 June 1853 - 28 July 1942) was a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology. ...

Excavation

Bernard Grenfell

In 1882 Egypt, while still nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, came under effective British rule, and British archaeologists began the systematic exploration of the country. Because Oxyrhynchus was not considered an Ancient Egyptian site of any importance, it was neglected until 1896, when two young excavators, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, both fellows of Queen's College, Oxford, began to excavate it. "My first impressions on examining the site were not very favourable," wrote Grenfell. "The rubbish mounds were nothing but rubbish mounds." However, they very soon realized what they had found. The unique combination of climate and circumstance had left at Oxyrhynchus an unequalled archive of the ancient world. "The flow of papyri soon became a torrent," Grenfell recalled. "Merely turning up the soil with one's boot would frequently disclose a layer." Bernard Grenfell This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Imperial motto (Ottoman Turkish) Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (the Eternal State) The Ottoman Empire at the height of its power (1683) Official language Ottoman Turkish Capital Sogut (1299-1326), Bursa (1326-1365), Edirne (1365-1453), Ä°stanbul (1453-1922) Imperial anthem Ottoman imperial anthem Sovereigns Padishah of the Osmanlı Dynasty... fellows may refer to: the plural of Fellow Fellows, California This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... College name The Queens College Named after Queen Philippa of Hainault Established 1341 Sister College Pembroke College Provost Sir Alan Budd JCR President Sushrut Yalamanchili Undergraduates 304 Graduates 133 Homepage Boatclub The Queens College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ...

Being classically educated Englishmen, Grenfell and Hunt were mainly interested in the possibility that Oxyrhynchus might reveal the lost masterpieces of classical Greek literature. They knew that the Constitution of Athens by Aristotle had been discovered on Egyptian papyrus in 1890, for example. This hope inspired them and their successors to sift through the mountains of rubbish at Oxyrhynchus for the next century. Their efforts were amply rewarded: it has been estimated that over 70 per cent of all the literary papyri so far discovered come from Oxyrhynchus, both copies of well-known standard works, many in versions significantly closer to the originals than those that had been transmitted in medieval manuscripts, and previously unknown works by the greatest authors of antiquity. ... Aristotle (Ancient Greek: Aristotelēs 384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, who studied with Plato and taught Alexander the Great. ...

Arthur Hunt

Yet of the many thousands of papyri excavated from Oxyrhynchus, only about ten per cent were literary. The rest consisted of public and private documents: codes, edicts, registers, official correspondence, census-returns, tax-assessments, petitions, court-records, sales, leases, wills, bills, accounts, inventories, horoscopes and private letters. Still, Grenfell and Hunt found enough texts of more general interest to keep them going in the hope of finding more. In their first year of digging alone, they found parts of several lost plays of Sophocles, such as the Ichneutae and many other books and fragments, including parts of what appeared to be an unknown Christian gospel. These discoveries captured the public imagination, and Grenfell and Hunt sent articles and photos to newspapers in Britain, arguing the importance of their work and seeking donations to keep it going. Arthur Hunt This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... A Roman bust. ...

Grenfell and Hunt devoted the rest of their lives to work on the material from Oxyrhynchus, apart from the years of World War I. Until 1906, every winter, when the Egyptian climate was bearable, Grenfell and Hunt supervised hundreds of Egyptian workers, excavating the rubbish mounds, digging up tightly packed layers of papyrus mixed with earth. The finds were sifted, partly cleaned and then shipped to Grenfell and Hunt's base at Oxford. During the summer, Grenfell and Hunt cleaned, sorted, translated and compared the year's haul, assembling complete texts from dozens of fragments and extracts. In 1898, they published the first volume of their finds. They worked closely together, each revising what the other wrote, and publishing the result jointly. In 1920, however, Grenfell died, leaving Hunt to continue with other collaborators until his own death in 1934. Meanwhile, Italian excavators had returned to the site: their work, from 1910 to 1934, brought to light many further papyri, including additional pieces of papyrus rolls parts of which had been discovered by Grenfell and Hunt. Combatants Allies: • Serbia, • Russia, • France, • Romania, • Belgium, • British Empire and Dominions, • United States, • Italy, • ...and others Central Powers: • Germany, • Austria-Hungary, • Ottoman Empire, • Bulgaria Casualties Military dead: 5 million Civilian dead: 3 million Total: 8 million Full list Military dead: 3 million Civilian dead: 3 million Total: 6 million Full...

Finds

Although the hope of finding all the lost literary works of antiquity at Oxyrhynchus was not realized, many important Greek texts were found at the site. These include poems of Pindar, fragments of Sappho and Alcaeus, along with larger pieces of Alcman, Ibycus and Corinna. Pindar Pindar (or Pindarus / Pindaros) (522 BC – 443 BC), considered the greatest of the nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ... Ancient Greek bust of Sappho the Eresian. ... Alcaeus may refer to several ancient Greek figures: in mythology, Alcaeus was the son of Perseus and the father of Amphitryon. ... Alcman (7th cent. ... Ibycus, of Rhegium in Italy, Greek lyric poet, contemporary of Anacreon, flourished in the 6th century BC. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. ... Corinna (or Korinna) was an Ancient Greek poet, probably of the 6th century BC. She came from Tanagra in Boeotia, and according to later legend was the teacher of the much better-known Theban poet Pindar. ...

There were also extensive remains of the Hypsipyle of Euripides, a large portion of the plays of Menander, and a large part of the Ichneutae of Sophocles. (The latter work was adapted, in 1988, into a play entitled The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, by British poet and author Tony Harrison, featuring Grenfell and Hunt as main characters.) Also found were the oldest and most complete diagrams from Euclid's Elements. Another important find was the historical work known as the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia, whose author is unknown but may be Ephorus or, as many currently think, Cratippus. A life of Euripides by Satyrus was also unearthed, while an epitome of some of the lost books of Livy was the most important literary find in Latin. A statue of Euripides Euripides (c. ... For the Indo-Greek king (160–135 BC) see Menander the Just. ... A Roman bust. ... Euclid Euclid of Alexandria (Greek: ) (ca. ... Euclids Elements (Greek: ) is a mathematical and geometric treatise, consisting of 13 books, written by the Hellenistic mathematician Euclid in Egypt during the early 3rd century BC. It comprises a collection of definitions, postulates (axioms), propositions (theorems) and proofs thereof. ... Hellenica Oxyrhynchia is the name given to a history of late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC in ancient Greece, of which papyrus fragments were unearthed at Oxyrhynchus, in Egypt. ... Ephorus (c. ... Cratippus (fl. ... A statue of Euripides Euripides (c. ... Satyrus is the name of a number of figures from the ancient world. ... 1. ... A portrait of Titus Livius made long after his death. ...

The classical author who has most benefited from the finds at Oxyrhynchus is the Athenian playwright Menander (342–291 BC), whose comedies were very popular in Hellenistic times and whose works are frequently found in papyrus fragments. Menander plays found in fragments at Oxyrhynchus include Misoumenos, Dis Exapaton, Epitrepontes, Karchedonios, and Kolax. The works found at Oxyrhynchus have greatly raised Menander's status among classicists and scholars of Greek theatre. For the Indo-Greek king (160–135 BC) see Menander the Just. ... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 390s BC - 380s BC - 370s BC - 360s BC - 350s BC - 340s BC _ 330s BC - 320s BC - 310s BC - 300s BC - 290s BC 347 BC 346 BC 345 BC 344 BC 343 BC 342 BC 341 BC 340 BC... Greek theatre or Greek Drama came into its own between 600 and 200 BC in the ancient city of Athens. ...

Among the Christian texts found at Oxyrhynchus, the fragments of early non-canonical Gospels are Oxyrhynchus 840 (3rd century AD) and 1224 (4th century AD). Other Oxyrhynchus texts preserve parts of Matthew 1 (3rd century: P2 and P401), 11-12 and 19 (3rd to 4th century: P2384,2385); Mark 10-11 (5th-6th century: P3); John 1, and 20 (3rd century: P208); Romans 1 (4th century: P209); the 1st epistle of John (4th-5th century: P402); the Apocalypse of Baruch (chapters 12–14; 4th or 5th century: number P403); the Gospel according to the Hebrews (3rd century AD: number P655); The Shepherd of Hermas (3rd or 4th century: number P404), and a work of Irenaeus, (3rd century: number P405). There are many parts of other canonical books as well as many early Christian hymns, prayers, and letters also found among them. Reports of fragments of the Gospel of Thomas, also known as the Sayings of Jesus, appearing on Papyrus number 1654 are spurious. This fragment, probably dating c. AD 150, actually contains an account of notarial expenses. For a listing of what each fragment contains, see http://www.csad.ox.ac.uk/POxy/papyri/tocframe.htm. (Note that the Gospel of Thomas is there described as "Logia Iesou"). The Biblical canon is an exclusive list of books written during the formative period of the Jewish or Christian faiths; the leaders of these communities believed these books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people (although there may... The Apocalypse of Baruch is a Jewish apocryphal or pseudepigraphical text written in the late 1st century CE, after the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 CE, which seemed to the author to signify the imminent end of the world (the apocalypse). ... The Gospel According to the Hebrews was a work of early Christian literature, already known by the mid 2nd century AD, to which reference is frequently made by the church fathers during the first five centuries of the Christian era, and of which some twenty or more fragments, have been... The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian work of the first or second century which had great authority in ancient times and was considered by some as one of the books of the Bible. ... An engraving of Saint Irenaeus (ca. ... The Gospel of Thomas, completely preserved in a papyrus Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, is a list of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. ...

The project today

A private letter on papyrus from Oxyrhynchus, written in a Greek hand of the second century AD. The holes are caused by worms. (English translation and description; Greek text)

Since the 1930s, work on the papyri has continued. For the past twenty years, it has been under the supervision of Professor Peter Parsons of Oxford. Sixty-seven large volumes of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri have been published, and these have become an essential reference work for the study of Egypt between the 4th century BC and the 7th century AD. They are also extremely important for the history of the early Christian Church, since many Christian documents have been found at Oxyrhynchus in far earlier versions than those known elsewhere. At least another 40 volumes are anticipated. A private letter on papyrus from Oxyrhynchus, written in a Greek hand of the second century AD (Oxyrhynchus papyrus 932, now kept in the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois). ... A private letter on papyrus from Oxyrhynchus, written in a Greek hand of the second century AD (Oxyrhynchus papyrus 932, now kept in the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois). ...

Since the days of Grenfell and Hunt, the focus of attention at Oxyrhynchus has shifted. Modern archaeologists are less interested in finding the lost plays of Aeschylus, although some still dig in hope, and more in learning about the social, economic and political life of the ancient world. This shift in emphasis had made Oxyrhynchus, if anything, even more important, for the very ordinariness of most of its preserved documents makes them most valuable for modern scholars of social history. Many works on Egyptian and Roman social and economic history and on the history of Christianity rely heavily on documents from Oxyrhynchus. Aeschylus This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ...

In 1966, the publication of the papyri was formally adopted as a Major Research Project of the British Academy, jointly managed by Oxford University and University College London and headed by Peter Parsons. The project's chief researcher and administrator is Dr Nikolaos Gonis. The Academy provided funding until 1999; the project now enjoys a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, which will fund ongoing work until 2005. Today some 100,000 papyrus fragments are housed at the Sackler Library, Oxford, with their indexes, archives and photographic record; it is the biggest hoard of classical manuscripts in the world. About 2,000 items are mounted in glass — the rest are conserved in 800 boxes. The British Academy is the United Kingdoms national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. ... University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ... The Sackler Library holds a large portion of the classical, art history, and archaeological works belonging to the University of Oxford. ...

The focus of the project is now mainly on the publication of this vast archive of material: by 2003 4,700 items had been translated, edited and published. Publication continues at the rate of about one new volume each year. Each volume contains a selection of material, covering a wide range of subjects. The editors include senior professionals but also students studying papyrology at the doctoral or undergraduate level. Thus recent volumes offer early fragments of the Gospels and of the Book of Revelation, early witnesses to the texts of Apollonius Rhodius, Aristophanes, Demosthenes, and Euripides, previously unknown texts of Simonides and Menander and of the epigrammatist Nicarchus. Other subjects covered include specimens of Greek music and documents relating to magic and astrology. Papyrology is the study of ancient literature as preserved in manuscripts written on papyrus, the most common form of paper in the Egyptian, Greek and Roman worlds. ... For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ... Visions of John the Evangelist, as depicted in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ... Apollonius of Rhodes (Apollonius Rhodius), librarian at Alexandria, was a poet, the author of Argonautica, a literary epic retelling of ancient material concerning Jason and the Argonauts quest for the Golden Fleece in the mythic land of Colchis. ... Bust of Aristophanes Aristophanes (c. ... Demosthenes statue, Roman copy of a Greek bronze original in marble about 380 BC, Rome, Vatican Museum, Braccio Nuovo. ... A statue of Euripides Euripides (c. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... For the Indo-Greek king (160–135 BC) see Menander the Just. ... An epigram is a short poem with a clever twist at the end or a concise and witty statement. ... Nicarchus was a Greek writer of the first century AD, best known for his epigrams, of which 42 survive, and his satirical poetry. ... Magical thinking is a term used by historians of religion to describe one kind of non-scientific causal reasoning. ... Astrology refers to any of several systems, traditions or beliefs in which knowledge of the apparent positions of celestial bodies is held to be useful in understanding, interpreting, and organizing knowledge about human affairs and events on earth. ...

Recently, a joint project with Brigham Young University using Multi-Spectral Imaging technology has been extremely successful in recovering previously illegible writing. The amount to be deciphered by this technique is potentially huge. A selection of the images obtained during the project and more information on the latest discoveries has been provided on the project's website. [2] Brigham Young University (BYU, or simply the Y) was founded as Brigham Young Academy in 1875 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church; see also Mormon). ...

On 21 June 2005 the Times Literary Supplement published the text and English translation of a newly reconstructed poem by Sappho, together with important discussion by Martin West. Part of this poem was first published in 1922 from an Oxyrhynchus papyrus, no. 1787 (fragment 1: see the third pair of images on this page). Most of the rest of the poem has now been found on a papyrus kept at Cologne University, of which an image is available on this page. June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation. ... Ancient Greek bust of Sappho the Eresian. ... The University of Cologne (Universität zu Köln) is one of the oldest Universities in Europe and, with over 43,000 students, is one of the largest institutions of higher education in Germany. ...

See also

• Heracles Papyrus
• Oxyrhynchus Gospels

The Heracles Papyrus The Heracles Papyrus (Oxford, Sackler Library, Oxyrhynchus Pap. ... Two fragmentary manuscripts, the Oxyrhynchus Gospels with British Library accession numbers 840 and 1224, throw light on early non-canonical Gospel traditions of Christianity for scholars, but are ignored by most Christians, as they are extremely fragmentary. ...

External links

• Oxyrhynchus Online
• Christian Oxyrhynchus (modern al-Bahnasa) and its Environs by Jimmy Dunn
• Report on the recent Egyptian-Spanish archaeological mission to the site
• Oxford University Classics Department Oxyrhynchus Project
• Oxyrhynchus and the Gospel of Thomas
• Article on new discoveries in the papyri from The Independent on Sunday, April 17, 2005
• City of the Sharp Nosed Fish web pages from BBC Radio 4
• City of the Sharp Nosed Fish Programme 1
• City of the Sharp Nosed Fish Programme 2
• City of the Sharp Nosed Fish Programme 3
• City of the Sharp Nosed Fish Programme 4