1 00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:05,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:11,360 Speaker 1: iHeart Radio. Hi, my name is Joe McCormick, and this 3 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:14,840 Speaker 1: is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff to 4 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:19,280 Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind, focusing on particular objects, ideas, and moments 5 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:24,880 Speaker 1: in time. You can learn a lot from looking at trash. 6 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:28,120 Speaker 1: There's a city in Egypt on the western side of 7 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:32,920 Speaker 1: the Nile Valley. Today it's called Albanasa, but during the 8 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:37,400 Speaker 1: Roman period it was known as Oxyrynchus. Although lots of 9 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:41,680 Speaker 1: people might not recognize the name, Oxyrynchus is without a doubt, 10 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:46,320 Speaker 1: one of the most important sources of original, handwritten ancient 11 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:50,520 Speaker 1: manuscripts in the entire world, and nearly all of these 12 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:55,200 Speaker 1: manuscripts trace back to crusty pits where, for hundreds of years, 13 00:00:55,640 --> 00:01:04,360 Speaker 1: in layer upon layer, people through their trash. Usually, unless 14 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:08,280 Speaker 1: they're carved into stone, written documents are relatively quick to decay, 15 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:12,080 Speaker 1: but the dry conditions at Oxyrynchus kept these trash pits 16 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 1: largely protected from natural degradation and safely guarded. Thousands of 17 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:22,240 Speaker 1: archaeologically precious papyrus documents across the ages. Beginning in the 18 00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: eighteen nineties, a pair of British scholars named Bernard Grenfell 19 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 1: and Arthur Hunt led an effort to excavate the ancient 20 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:32,760 Speaker 1: garbage dumps of Oxyrrincus and discovered a bonanza of written 21 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:36,880 Speaker 1: documents from roughly the third century to the seventh, including 22 00:01:36,959 --> 00:01:40,800 Speaker 1: everything from the plays of Menander and poetry of Sappho 23 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:44,600 Speaker 1: to passages from a non canonical early Christian work that 24 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:48,840 Speaker 1: would later be identified as the Gospel of Thomas. It's 25 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:52,480 Speaker 1: been estimated that about ten percent of the documents are literary, 26 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:56,080 Speaker 1: meaning things like plays and poetry, with much of the 27 00:01:56,120 --> 00:02:01,560 Speaker 1: rest being the paper record of daily life, letters, contracts, 28 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: census rolls, receipts, lists of offerings for ritual sacrifice. The 29 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:11,800 Speaker 1: garbage Library of Oxyrrincus offers a diverse and fascinating view 30 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:14,919 Speaker 1: into life in Egypt through the Roman period and after. 31 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:17,520 Speaker 1: And today I wanted to talk about a couple of 32 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:22,119 Speaker 1: the papyri unearthed there that caught my attention. One sordid 33 00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 1: document discovered at Oxyrrincus dates to the year two sixty 34 00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:28,960 Speaker 1: seven CE, and it has been described as one of 35 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:33,520 Speaker 1: the world's earliest proofs of bribery in an athletic competition 36 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:37,880 Speaker 1: known as Papyrus Oxyrincus fifty two O nine. It's a 37 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:42,560 Speaker 1: contract between the ambitious father of a young wrestler named 38 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:48,120 Speaker 1: n Cantonus and the trainers of another young wrestler named Demetrius, 39 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:52,799 Speaker 1: stipulating that Demetrius must lose an upcoming wrestling match ton 40 00:02:52,919 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 1: Cantonus on purpose. If Demetrius fulfilled his promise to quote 41 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:02,799 Speaker 1: fall three times and yield, n Cantonus's father would pay 42 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 1: him three thousand, eight hundred drachmas. According to several authors, 43 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:10,000 Speaker 1: this was roughly the price of a donkey at the time, 44 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 1: but there's a heavy penalty for backing out. According to 45 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 1: a short piece in Archaeology Magazine by Jason Urbanus, in 46 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,720 Speaker 1: the agreement also threatens that if Demetrius were to betray 47 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:25,920 Speaker 1: the agreement and win the match, his party would owe 48 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,520 Speaker 1: eighteen thousand drachmas, which by the earlier metric is about 49 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 1: four point seven donkeys, so a strong distincentive. Why would 50 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:37,720 Speaker 1: so much wealth be on the line to fix a 51 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:42,520 Speaker 1: wrestling match between two teenagers? Speaking to Owen Jaris for 52 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:47,920 Speaker 1: article in Life Science, the translator of the papyrus, Dominic 53 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:52,640 Speaker 1: Rathbone of King's College, London, explains the context in the 54 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:56,280 Speaker 1: ancient world, the winners of athletic competitions would often be 55 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 1: given a cash reward or would be honored with a 56 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: life time pension from their hometown, but the competitions were 57 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:07,480 Speaker 1: also winner take all. There was no such reward for 58 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:10,320 Speaker 1: being a runner up. Add that to the fact that 59 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:14,880 Speaker 1: entering an athletic competition was usually expensive in itself, since 60 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,960 Speaker 1: you had to pay your trainers for their services as 61 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:21,640 Speaker 1: well as for accommodations, food, and travel, you could easily 62 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:24,960 Speaker 1: end up in debt. So if you had doubts about 63 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:28,960 Speaker 1: your ability to win an upcoming competition, it made financial 64 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:33,359 Speaker 1: sense to take the bribe and practice cafebe. Greek writers 65 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:36,320 Speaker 1: from the period do speak about bribery and corruption in 66 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 1: athletic games, but this papyrus is the first to provide 67 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:44,719 Speaker 1: direct proof. Rathbone also points out a quixotic aspect of 68 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:48,839 Speaker 1: the contract, the fact that it exists at all. If 69 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:52,960 Speaker 1: one side didn't honor the deal, who would enforce the contract. 70 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:56,599 Speaker 1: It's an agreement to cheat, so it's hard to imagine 71 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,600 Speaker 1: the contract being used in court to force one side 72 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:02,680 Speaker 1: or the other there to honor their word. Another interesting 73 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:05,800 Speaker 1: manuscript from Oxyrrincus caught my attention, not because of what 74 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:08,520 Speaker 1: was written on it, but because of how it ended 75 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: up in the trash. According to Princeton professor Anna Marie 76 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:16,360 Speaker 1: Liondike and her two thousand ten articles Sacred Scriptures as 77 00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:21,400 Speaker 1: Trash Biblical Papyri from Oxyrynchus, it's often hard to figure 78 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:24,320 Speaker 1: out how or why a written text from the ancient 79 00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:27,640 Speaker 1: world ended up in a garbage dump, especially in the 80 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:31,279 Speaker 1: case of religious literature, which you would assume was believed 81 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:35,159 Speaker 1: to be holy. In some cases, books were discarded because 82 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:38,200 Speaker 1: of natural wear and tear, possibly after the text they 83 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:42,600 Speaker 1: contained had been freshly recopied onto new media. Other times, 84 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:46,760 Speaker 1: generational changes in language or education level could make existing 85 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:49,720 Speaker 1: books relatively useless. It's hard to get much out of 86 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:52,480 Speaker 1: a book if you can't read it, but in some 87 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:56,599 Speaker 1: very rare instances we can actually detect the final use 88 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 1: of a manuscript. This brings us to the Syncus Papyrus 89 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:05,159 Speaker 1: number forty thirty three. In terms of contents, it's a 90 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:08,880 Speaker 1: manuscript of an ancient commentary on the poetry of Homer, 91 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:13,640 Speaker 1: which was immensely popular and widely studied throughout the ancient Mediterranean. 92 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:18,320 Speaker 1: Liondyke explains that when these ancient papyri are excavated from 93 00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:21,840 Speaker 1: garbage dumps. They usually take the form of crumpled up 94 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:26,000 Speaker 1: dry lumps, so before you can transcribe and translate the 95 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:29,240 Speaker 1: writing on them, you have to flatten them out. To 96 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:32,960 Speaker 1: do this, scholars apply moisture to the dried out fibers 97 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:35,679 Speaker 1: of the papyrus and then pull and rub them until 98 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:39,000 Speaker 1: they assume the correct shape. Some experts do this with 99 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:45,240 Speaker 1: their fingers. To quote from lion Dyke regarding Papyrus three quote, 100 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:48,719 Speaker 1: whether it was the vapors let loose when this homer 101 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:52,840 Speaker 1: piece was dampened, or more substantial organic remains stuck to it, 102 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:56,360 Speaker 1: the conservation of that papyrus must have been a surprisingly 103 00:06:56,480 --> 00:07:00,840 Speaker 1: unpleasant task for its editor. J. Spooner notes that this 104 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:04,760 Speaker 1: text was last used as toilet paper, or what I 105 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:09,239 Speaker 1: would call toilet papyrus. Liondyte notes that in most cases 106 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:12,200 Speaker 1: the exact circumstances that led to the trashing of a 107 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,520 Speaker 1: document are not quite so obvious, but it's a clear 108 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:18,800 Speaker 1: reminder that even in an age when literature had to 109 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:22,800 Speaker 1: be laboriously reproduced by hand, one copy at a time, 110 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:26,080 Speaker 1: readers are always going to be facing their own priorities. 111 00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: Tune into new editions of the Artifact every Wednesday, hosted 112 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:41,960 Speaker 1: by either Robert or myself. As always, you can email 113 00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 1: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 114 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:56,400 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio. 115 00:07:56,760 --> 00:07:59,080 Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart 116 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:01,880 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 117 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 1: favorite shows.