1,700-Year-Old Fragment of "Odyssey" Discovered Between Pages of a Library Book
Researchers dated the parchment to about 300 AD and said only about 30 such Odyssey fragments are known worldwide.
- On September 17, 2026, researcher Mark de Kreij announced the discovery of a rare, 1,700-year-old fragment of Homer's epic "Odyssey" in the Netherlands. The ancient parchment was found sandwiched inside a library book.
- De Kreij identified the tiny slip of paper within a collection of early Christian manuscripts purchased by Utrecht University in the mid-20th century. Researchers initially misidentified it as a 7th-century document before confirming its actual age.
- The fragment comes from the 12th book of the "Odyssey," describing when Odysseus's sailors consumed cattle sacred to the Sun God, Apollo. This passage marks a crucial tipping point in the epic poem.
- Dating to around 300 AD, the 2.6 by 3-inch parchment likely belonged to a pocket edition owned by a fan in the Fayum oasis. Only about 30 such fragments exist worldwide, underscoring the discovery's rarity.
- "There are so many boring parts in the Odyssey," De Kreij said, calling this passage "a really fun" find. The researcher, who told media "I have the best job in the world," made the discovery two years ago.
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A researcher was studying a collection of ancient Egyptian texts in a library in the Netherlands when he found a small fragment of parchment with passages from the “Odyssey.” The fragment appears to be from a small-sized edition of the “Odyssey,” created in Egypt around 300 AD. Mark de Kreij, an expert in Greek literature and professor at Radboud University in the Netherlands, discovered the fragment in 2024 while studying early Christian manusc…
A Dutch school looking through a collection of early Christian texts turned up a pocket-size slice of Homer. Mark de Kreij of Radboud University spotted a 1,700-year-old park scroll in Utrecht University's holdings and realized it carried lines from Book 12 of the Odyssey, the verses in which Helios...
A researcher at the Utrecht University library in the Netherlands has made a stunning discovery. Mark de Kreij was examining a German scholar's manuscript collection when he came across a 1,700-year-old piece of parchment containing a few lines from Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey.
Only a few fragments of such early copies of the epic survive.
The 6.6 by 7.7 centimeter fragment was discovered by a researcher studying a collection of ancient Egyptian texts - It includes verses from the 12th rhapsody of the Homeric epic
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