The Greek physician Galen is still popular

Maybe, just maybe, researchers from the University of Basel have deciphered a papyrus that was written by the Greek physician Galen!

This specific papyrus was part of a lot counting 65 papers which were purchased by said University back in 1900 as part of the private collection of Basilius Amerbach, who acquired it at some point in the 16^th century.

The document that has now been tied to Galen was a very intriguing one since it was written in mirror writing on both sides. Thanks to modern ultraviolet and infrared imagery, the laboratory was able to determine that this was not a single sheet but made of several layers that were glued together. After the intervention of a specialist, the different sheets were separated, and the Greek papyrus could, at last, be decoded.

The majority of these sheets are letters, contracts, and receipts, but the Greek text is a medical description of the phenomenon of what is called hysterical apnea. This links the papyrus directly to Galen, being either his own work or an early commentary on his work. To support this theory is the fact that experts were able to connect the document to similar papyri from the chancery of the Archdiocese of Ravenna, Italy, where many antique manuscripts (palimpsests) from Galen are being kept (see also: Hello? Dr. Galen?).

The research team in Basel has made huge progress in deciphering, digitizing, annotating, and translating their papyrus collection, which will be published in early 2019. Making their collection available in a digital database will allow other researchers to add their own papyri and eventually piece together the many fragments from other papyrus collections or possibly compare different versions of the same antique work.

Click here to read the full article published by The Archaeology News Network on deciphering the Basel papyri.