A philosophical treatise on the nature of the gods, cosmogony, the theory of the soul and the nature of religious rituals, mainly in the form of an interpretation of an earlier Orphic hymn, forms the text on a charred scroll illegible for nearly two and a half millennia.

Greek and foreign researchers were finally able to entirely read the so-called Derveni Papyrus -- the place-name of the site northwest of modern-day Thessaloniki where it was found -- by using state-of-the-art technology.  

The papyrus, blackened by time and fire, was discovered in 1962 with other noted artifacts from the Derveni site. According to archaeologists, it survived a funeral pyre in the mid 4th century BC, which would place it in the Macedonian sphere of Classical Greece.

Professors from Oxford, the University of Patra and Brigham Young University participated in the project and will give a press conference in Thessaloniki on Tuesday.  

Source: Athens News Agency

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