Literary Texts as Funerary Amulets

Archaeologists found a papyrus excerpt of Homer’s Iliad intentionally placed inside a Roman‑period Egyptian mummy, indicating that high literary works could be repurposed as protective or ritual objects in burial practices. This shows that classical literature circulated not only as educational or entertainment material but also as physical talismans in cross‑cultural religious contexts. — This reframes how we think about the social life of texts: canonical works can serve pragmatic, ritual, and material roles that reshape debates about literacy, cultural transmission, and religious syncretism in antiquity.