Recipe Books Buried Under the Sand

The Delicious Legacy

In a seemingly abandoned desert spot, near a small and insignificant Egyptian village, for a period of one thousand years, a city flourished; an important Hellenistic-Egyptian city, perhaps the 3rd largest in Egypt at the turn of the world from the Greek to Roman influence. This city, was called Oxyrhynchus: which translates as the city of the sharp-nosed fish .

This, is where our adventure today begins! Two thousand years ago Oxyrhynchus, was on canals leading directly to the river Nile, which as today, it was the lifeline of all of Egypt's inhabitants.

On January 11, 1897, a low mound was being dug, when a piece of papyrus with unknown Logia, or ‘Sayings of Jesus’ was brought to the surface (it would later be determined that this was the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas ). Next was a leaf from the Gospel of Matthew , and then even more pieces of papyri. In three months, the men found enough papyri to fill 280 boxes.

These papyri, tell us the story of the inhabitants, open a window to the everyday past, and to the private lives of the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine citizens of Egypt!

Find out how, by listening to the episode!

As ever, many thanks to Pavlos Kapralos for creating the music for this episode.

Love,

The Delicious Legacy

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