naure.com
HistorySurprise 5/5Difficulty 4/5Reviewed on September 13, 2026

A 1,600-year-old Egyptian mummy contained a scroll with Homer's Iliad.

Why it is true

Archaeologists discovered in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, a papyrus scroll with excerpts from Homer's epic poem placed on the belly of a Roman mummy. It is the first known case of a Greek literary text intentionally included in the mummification process, rather than a magical or ritualistic text.

Source: Vietnam.vn

Would you rather be asked first?

This is the reading side of the site, so the answer is in the sentence above — that is the whole point of it. Test yourself works the other way round: the question comes on its own, and the fact and the explanation only appear once you have answered.

Test yourself →10-question challenge

Related facts

More in History

See all →