Papyri Collection
The WashU Libraries Julian Edison Department of Special Collections Manuscripts Collection houses over 445 papyrus manuscript fragments dating from the 1st century BC to the 8th century AD. Sir William Flinders Petrie and the Egypt Exploration Society excavated the fragments in 1923 at the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. For a full inventory of the collection, see the WashU Papyrus Finding Guide (PDF).
The physical Papyri Collection is owned by the Classics Department but housed in Special Collections.
This digital exhibition of the Papyri Collection. The content in this digital exhibition represents fragments published in two volumes: Washington University Papyri I: Non-literary Texts (1980) and Papyri from the Washington University Collection, St. Louis, Missouri. Part II (1990).
History of Incarceration Digital Documentary
A fragment from the papyrus collection is in the digital documentary History of Incarceration. This project studies how societies have recorded and enforced systems of justice, detention, and social control. For full details and to browse the digital documentary, please see the John and Penelope Biggs Department of Classics “WashU Papyri Fragment Featured in Digital Project on the History of Incarceration” article.
Papyri Collection in the News
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