The Briefing Room

General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Archaeology => Topic started by: mountaineer on July 17, 2019, 11:30:18 am

Title: The world’s oldest surviving letter by an actual Christian contains a request for fish sauce.
Post by: mountaineer on July 17, 2019, 11:30:18 am

The world’s oldest surviving letter by an actual Christian contains a request for fish sauce.
By Aaron Robertson
July 16, 2019, 11:46am

Sometimes the greatest secrets are right under our noses, in shuttered backrooms or buried beneath layers of decades-old junk.

One researcher at the University of Basel, in Switzerland, has discovered a treasure likely to appeal to epistolary and classical fanatics alike. Sabine Huebner, a professor of ancient history who specializes in ancient Roman social life, has researched and dated what is believed to be the world’s oldest surviving letter written by a Christian.

The papyrus letter, which Huebner dates to 230 AD, came from the village of Theadelphia in central Egypt, just southwest of Cairo, and was written in Ancient Greek by a man named Arrianus to his brother, Paulus. ...  Full story at LitHub (https://lithub.com/the-worlds-oldest-surviving-letter-by-an-actual-christian-contains-a-request-for-fish-sauce/?fbclid=IwAR2P-t_cLzLawxlDJGrXVE7L-s7aDRwehbf9xuC1a4k2d2B9Ox3fIl3hEnM)
(https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/16102400-7251629-image-a-1_1563260853714-481x1024.jpg)

Title: Re: The world’s oldest surviving letter by an actual Christian contains a request for fish sauce.
Post by: PeteS in CA on July 18, 2019, 11:36:10 pm

Interesting that one can distinguish the crisscrossed papyrus leaves.