Derveni papyrus

Derveni papyrus
Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki
Fragments of the Derveni papyrus
Type	Papyrus roll
Date	c. 340 BC, from a late 5th century BC original
Place of origin	Macedonia
Language(s)	Ancient Greek
Size	266 fragments
Format	26 columns
Condition	Fragmentary, charred from funeral pyre
Contents	Commentary on a hexameter poem ascribed to Orpheus
Discovered	1962

The Derveni papyrus is an Ancient Greek papyrus roll that was discovered in 1962 at the archaeological site of Derveni, near Thessaloniki, in Central Macedonia. A philosophical treatise, the text is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem, a theogony concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras. The roll dates to around 340 BC, during the reign of Philip II of Macedon, making it Europe's oldest surviving manuscript.^[1][2] The poem itself was originally composed near the end of the 5th century BC,^[3] and "in the fields of Greek religion, the sophistic movement, early philosophy, and the origins of literary criticism it is unquestionably the most important textual discovery of the 20th century."^[4] While interim editions and translations were published over the subsequent years, the manuscript in its entirety was first published in 2006.^[5]