no, I’m not surprised—
by James Penha
it takes forever to digest
the horrors of war
In the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, archaeologists have discovered a 1,600-year-old tomb with several mummies inside including one with, unprecedentedly, a papyrus fragment from Homer’s Iliad under the wrappings on the mummy’s abdomen.
The scientists say, “We are currently studying and proposing various hypotheses.”
My sciku offers an explanation of this remarkable find.
Further reading:
‘A passage from Homer’s Iliad has been discovered inside the abdomen of a Roman-era Egyptian mummy’, 2026, Kova, A., Scientific American, available: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/passage-from-homers-iliad-discovered-in-the-abdomen-of-a-roman-era-egyptian-mummy/
‘Archaeologists Unearth a Papyrus Fragment From the ‘Iliad’ Tucked Inside the Wrappings of a 1,600-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy’, 2026, Wexler, E., Smithsonian Magazine, available: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-unearth-a-papyrus-fragment-from-the-iliad-tucked-inside-the-wrappings-of-a-1600-year-old-egyptian-mummy-180988603/
Author bio:
Expat New Yorker James Penha (he/him 🌈) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. His story collection Queer As Folk Tales was published by Deep Desires Press in October 2025. His chapbook of poems American Daguerreotypes is available for Kindle.
Penha edits TheNewVerse.News, an online journal of current-events poetry. You can find out more about his poetry on his website https://jamespenha.com and catch up with him on BlueSky @jamespenha.bsky.social