When I see articles like this saying such as “... thought to have been [destroyed, decayed, etc.] centuries ago...” I can’t help but hope that some day some duplicate copy of the Library of Alexandria were discovered... What a tremendous loss that was!
Contrary to popular belief (including around here), the Ship’s Library / Great Library of Alexandria wasn’t destroyed by Julius Caesar; it continued in use throughout Roman times, and sometime in the early centuries A.D. the papyrus scrolls were copied onto more durable parchment. Those parchment copies were burned by the Moslems. However, the papyrus originals could have survived (at least in part, and of course, not in like-new conditions) in the dry desert conditions of whatever dump they were cast into, or whatever new use they found.
[snip]
http://www.digonsite.com/drdig/egypt/72.html
Where was Cleopatra’s signature found?
Dr. dig responds: The papyrus text with Cleopatra’s signature had been recycled for use in the construction of a cartonnage mummy case found by a German expedition at Abusir in 1904. It was common practice in ancient Egyptian times to recycle old papyrus and use it for wrapping mummies. In fact, many Egyptian texts have survived because of this practice, and it is one reason that we know so much about ancient Egypt.
But I do not know whose mummy the recycled text was used for.