Derveni papyrus
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Key facts
- Type
- Papyrus roll
- Date
- c. 340 BC , from a late 5th century BC original
- Place of origin
- Macedonia
- Language
- Ancient Greek
- Size
- 266 fragments
- Format
- 26 columns
- Condition
- Fragmentary, charred from funeral pyre
- Contents
- Commentary on a hexameter poem ascribed to Orpheus
via Wikipedia infobox
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Encyclopedic overview
The Derveni papyrus is an Ancient Greek papyrus roll that was discovered in 1962 at the archaeological site of Derveni, near Thessaloniki, in Central Macedonia. A philosophical treatise, the text is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem, a theogony concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras. The roll dates to around 340 BC, during the reign of Philip II of Macedon, making it Europe's oldest surviving manuscript. The poem itself was originally composed near the end of the 5th century BC, and "in the fields of Greek religion, the sophistic movement, early philosophy, and the origins of literary criticism it is unquestionably the most important textual discovery of the 20th century." While interim editions and translations were published over the subsequent years, the manuscript in its entirety was first published in 2006.
Discovery
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Derveni papyrus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.