Excavation report, first season: 1897

‘I had for some time felt that one of the most promising sites in Egypt for finding Greek manuscripts was the city of Oxyrhynchus ...

Above all, Oxyrhynchus seemed to be a site where fragments of Christian literature might be expected of an earlier date than the fourth century, to which our oldest manuscripts of the New Testament belong ...’

Grenfell brought out the report on the first season’s work within months of their return to Oxford; an account in full of over 150 selected items from the season’s finds followed the next year, as Part I of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri.

Intro