medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Roman-period inventions (I use the term advisedly) of books said to have been buried with their authors possibly draw on such cultural practices, though the examples that come to mind (Numa's books, Dictys of Crete) fall very easily into the broader category of treasure trove.
Best,
John Dillon
On Monday, January 11, 2010, at 2:58 pm, Bob Kraft wrote:
> Apparently the practice goes back at least as far as the 2nd
> millennium bce, when Egyptians left us such things as the "coffin
> texts" and copies of the "book of the dead" written on papyrus and
> placed in the burial chamber, or inside the coffin with the mummy (so
> the Wikipedia article on "Book of the Dead"). In a much later Greek
> context we have the Derveni papyrus (4th bce -- check google
> references). Among Christian materials similarly deposited are the
> recently published "Gospel of Judas" from the 4th ce (much recent
> literature -- for a popular account, see Herbert Krosney, The Lost
> Gospel [National Geographic 2006]), or the "Gospel of Peter" and
> associated items from an 8th ce monastic grave. I'm sure that there
> are many, many, more (not counting modern practices), but I don't have
> at hand any single bibliographic reference (which doesn't mean there
> isn't such).
>
> Bob
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