The Narrative Within

Preserved by the dry desert sands of Egypt, innumerable manuscript fragments written on parchment and papyrus have been discovered by archaeologists since the eighteenth century. Largely recovered from the rubbish heaps, these ancient documents provide a snapshot of what people were reading and writing, ranging from high literature (Homer’s Illiad) to mundane documents (tax receipts). The textual detritus of cities like Oxyrhynchus and Tebutnis reveals literary works and historical records previously unknown to modern scholarship and contributes to critical editions of texts from classical Greece and early Christianity. Even more fascinating, the intersection of textual study with material culture sheds light on how people interacted with texts, both in the form of complete books and in excerpted formats like citations on protective amulets. My current research focuses on understanding the way that Greek and Coptic amulets manipulated biblical text as a widespread way of accessing spiritual power. While some…