OXYRHYNCHUS (Ar., Al-Bahnasa), principal town in the nome (province) Oxyrhynchites in Lower Egypt, located approximately 75 km (47 mi.) southwest of modern Bani Suef and 16 1cm (10 mi.) west of Bani Mazar (28°3o' N, 30°4o' E). Oxyrhynchus flourished chiefly during the Roman era, although it has remains from both the earlier Ptolemaic and later Byzantine and Arab periods. The top-onym for both the town and the province derive from tlie Greek name for a fish of the sturgeon class in whose honor a temple was built at Oxyrhynchus.
Excavations of the ancient rubbish dumps at the site were carried out initially by Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt, two young papyrologists, in six campaigns from 1897 to 1898 and 1903 to 1907. They were followed by excavators from Italy, led first by Ermenogildo Pistelli and Giulio Farina (1910,1912,1913), and later by Evaristo Breccia (19271928, 1932, 1934) for the Societa per la Ricerca dei Papiri. The principal object of all of tlrese excavators was the acquisition of papyrus texts. The result was the discovery of a stunning number of documents. The number of published volumes in the series The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, for instance, has reached fifty-seven (1990), the edited texts consisting of not only Greek and Latin literary works but chiefly documentary writings, in Greek and Latin as well as other languages. Other Oxyrhynchus texts have been published elsewhere, primarily in tlte series Papiri greci e latini (Pub-blicazioni della Societa Italians).
As Grenfell and Hunt described it, the site of the ancient town itself stretched about 2 km (i mi.) from north to soutli and.8 km (.5 mi.) from east to west. The rubbish mounds
World History
