What Will Far-Future Archaeologists Think of Our “Papyri?”

grocery list written by Heraclitus for his brother Petechois (Egyptian, 3rd century CE)

While some archaeological excavations uncover great monuments — Roman inscriptions, Pharaonic statues and so on — many more dig up hundreds of scribbled notes, receipts from stores, invoices, tax returns, census records, and voluminous correspondence among the military officers, tax officials, priests and politicians of ancient societies.