Dear Sir / Madam ... A reminder of a formal dinner invitation. Source: UBC Library
THEY’RE just two castaway scraps containing scribbled notes. But they’re on papyrus from ancient Egypt and prove the more things change, the more we stay the same.
One is an emotional letter from a homesick youth telling his mum how much he misses her. The sentiments are timeless: Are you well? Thinking of you every day. Can I visit soon?
The other papyrus is an anxious reminder of a previously arranged dinner date. Did it have romantic intentions, or was it more a matter of social climbing?
It reminds the guest they have been invited “to dine at the couch of the lord Sarapis.”
According to the University of British Columbia’s news service, the two browned scraps of papyri were recently rediscovered in the vaults of a Canadian university library.
Dear Mum ... The papyrus note sent from a homesick young man to his mothers. Source: UBC LibrarySource:Supplied
They were excavated in the 1930s before being taken to the University of Mitchigan before finding their way to the University of British Columbia’s library.
They’re about 1800 years old.
Their translation offers a rare glimpse into the lives of Egypt’s middle class.
“These documents are a window on a lost world, revealing the daily activities of ordinary people,” professor Toph Marshall said.
It was not until 2014 that a PhD student began a search for some Babylonian clay tablets for a presentation charting the evolution of writing from stone tablets to touch screens that the poorly catalogued papyri came to light.
The papyri, the university’s only examples of their kind, have since been digitised and more carefully catalogued for future reference.
