The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology  Friday 14 May 2010 10:05AM
(view full episode)  Today we're putting on our white gloves
because we're dealing with very sensitive material. It dates
back to the Ancient Romans and their writings. Papyrus was used
in scrolls and codices that the ancients wrote their letters on
and used for their accounting. Papyrus scrolls have been found
in tombs and in ancient rubbish dumps. Classicists have been
able to identify the occupation of individuals in a household,
like a man called Socrates who turns out to be a tax collector.
The range of material on papyrus is vast and archaeologists are
still digging it up in Egypt.  The Oxford Handbook of
Papyrology, which documents these details, has just come out.
And Roger Bagnall is its editor, one could say a modern-day
papyrus hunter.   Ramona Koval: It turns out that papyrus
scrolls have been found in tombs and in ancient rubbish dumps.
Classicists have been able to identify the occupation of
individuals in a household, like a man call