The modern village of el-Bahnasa, in the governorate of el-Minya, is
the location for the destroyed site of the capital of the 19th Upper
Egyptian nome. Little is known of the pharaonic history of the town of
Per-Medjed, except that a species of mormyrus fish was worshipped
there in a local cult. The ‘sharp-nosed fish’ is reputed to have been
one of the three species of Nile fish who, according to legend, ate
the phallus of Osiris when the god’s body was cut into pieces by his
brother Seth. Plutarch tells of a dispute which broke out between this
town and its neighbour, Cynopolis, who worshipped a dog - each
community being accused of killing and eating each other’s sacred
emblems. Per-Medjed was called Oxyrhynchus (or Oxyrhynchonpolis) by
the Greeks who named their town after the sacred fish.
The town began to gain in importance during Ptolemaic times when it
became a prosperous regional capital and under the Greeks and Romans
became the third city of Egypt. Oxyrhynchus was a large and
sophisticated town during Roman times, with access to the camel-routes
between the Nile Valley and the western oases. It is thought to have
housed as many as 6000 people during its prominence, and a few
structures have been revealed from this period, including part of a
colonnade and a substantial Roman theatre. Textural evidence tells us
that there was also a gymnasium, public baths and about twenty
temples. The site was visited by Denon and other early travellers,
before Petrie dug there for the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1896. The
site had long been quarried for its stone and brick and remaining
structures were few. However it was Arthur Hunt and Bernard Grenfell
who were to make the name of Oxyrhynchus famous.
The two archaeologists from Oxford had been excavating for papyri for
the newly-formed Graeco-Roman branch of the Egypt Exploration Fund,
especially in the Faiyum area. In 1896 they turned their attentions to
Oxyrhynchus, where they discovered, in the town’s rubbish mounds, a
large quantity of papyri scrolls ranging from the Roman conquest to
the early Islamic period. Between 1896 and 1906, Oxyrhynchus yielded
an impressive collection of texts for Grenfell and Hunt, mostly
written in Greek but also in Latin, Coptic and Arabic. Literary works
included plays and poetry, several previously lost classical works, as
well as known texts of Plato. Fragmentary Christian texts were also
found, including a collection of Logia, or sayings of Christ, some
which do not appear in the gospels. Other discarded manuscripts found
in the rubbish dumps consisted of letters and texts which shed an
important light on daily life in Roman Egypt. Details of political,
financial and religious concerns have been revealed in this, one of
the largest and most important finds of papyri in Egypt. Together
Grenfell and Hunt went on to edit and publish many volumes of the
Oxyrhynchus Papyri for the Egypt Exploration Fund. |
