[AZLiberty]

Is this like finding the backup tapes for the lost library at Alexandria?

[jocon307]

"Is this like finding the backup tapes for the lost library at Alexandria?"

That's what some folks seem to think. I never read the MSM anymore, but so far I've only read about this on a couple of threads here. But it is pretty interesting.

I kind of doubt it's going to change the history of the world.

[SunkenCiv]

Is this like finding the backup tapes for the lost library at Alexandria?

When the article (one like it that is) said that these were papyri, I got a little excited, but it turned out to come from a site more than 160 km from Alexandria. If the vintage of some of the scrolls is correct, they could have been made as copies from the "Ship's Library" originals. By the time the library was burned (according to a Moslem historian, the half-million books were burned by order of the Moslem caliph after the Conquest; not by Julius Caesar as is so often still heard; they were used to fuel the many hot baths in Alexandria, and this took six months) the papyrus originals had been replaced by more durable parchment. Presumably the Great Library papyri were dumped somewhere, or given away, or otherwise disposed of, and may yet emerge from a pile of refuse. That will be a great day.