The World's Greatest Trash Heap?

[besilarius]

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/oxyrhynchus-ancient-egypts-most-literate-trash-heap?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=atlas-page

After reading this, all I could think of was Lou Zocchi racing through the SPI warehouse saving what he could before the pulpers seized it all.
Wonder what happened to the Avalon Hill stocks after Hasbro got them?

[Nefaro]

That's pretty cool.

I recall reading about Oxyrhynchus somewhere.  But not necessarily it's trash heaps full of papyrus writings.  Herodotus perhaps?  Or maybe mentioned in something to do with the Ptolemaic period since the name implies that was it's heyday.

Their online translation volunteer tool is interesting.  Although it's not currently running.  :-\

[JasonPratt]

In my other line of work ;) , Oxyrhynchus is famous for providing several famous papyrus Christian fragments, including some relatively large swatches like much of the Coptic Gospel of Thomas (not itself a very large text, being less than 115 verses iirc.) Despite the article, most of them aren't "biblical" -- they weren't part of an accepted canon, but were just one-offs and assimilations of other texts. The late ultra-dean of textual criticism, Bruce Metzger, was referring to the trash heap of Oxyrhynchus when he quipped that when the Romans come to your door to search your house for Christian texts, and offer clemency if you provide them now, it made a difference whether you gave them GosThom or GosJohn. Which one was more expendable? -- which one would get you in more trouble if they caught you with it later? -- which one would get you in more trouble if you handed it over anyway?

Still, most of the few quotes attributed to Jesus that might feasibly go back to Jesus, which aren't included in the canon, come from the Oxy papyrus somewhere.

As the article notes, there's a massive treasure trove of other historical and socio-cultural data there, too.