Oxyrhynchus Papyri at WilliamsFrom 1896 to 1907, excavations of Roman waste dumps at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, uncovered hundreds of thousands of papyrus fragments. The work was undertaken by British archaeologists Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt and sponsored by the Egypt Exploration Fund (later the Egypt Exploration Society). The papyri, primarily in Greek, include literature, histories, and biblical texts, as well as everyday records, receipts, and letters. While the bulk of the collection remained at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, the Fund distributed some fragments to other institutions in thanks for supporting the expeditions and to encourage further interest in papyrology.
