By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Researchers say theyve found the oldest known extract from Homers Odyssey
1f645cfcd95508684194f43fda80141be9c801bb945f401dab21bbed96f66eaa
This undated handout photo provided by the Greek Culture Ministry on Tuesday, July 10, 2018 shows a slab inscribed with 13 verses from the Odyssey's Book 14 that was found near the Olympia sanctuary, dating to the Roman period, possibly before the 3rd century. Greece's Culture Ministry says the inscription unearthed at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games could be the oldest written excerpt ever discovered of Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. (Greek Culture Ministry via AP) - photo by Herb Scribner
Archaeologists in Greece may have just discovered the oldest known extract of Homers epic poem The Odyssey.

The Greek and German research team found a passage from the epic poem on a clay plaque in Ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, near the Temple of Zeus, according to Reuters.

Researchers believe the plaque includes 13 verses from Book 14 of the poem in which the main character, Odysseus, addresses his friend Eumaeus.

The researchers said the plaque comes from around the Roman era, roughly around the third century A.D.

According to Quartz, scholars believed Homer wrote the poem somewhere between 725 and 675 B.C.

The poem which tells the story of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, who spends 10 years trying to get home after participating in the fall of the kingdom of Troy, according to the BBC was first printed in 1488 in Florence, Italy.

The plaque is a great archaeological, epigraphic, literary and historical exhibit, the Greek culture ministry said (link in Greek).

If this preliminary dating is confirmed, the ministry said, then this clay tablet will maybe hold the oldest written excerpt of Homers volumes that have ever come to light, and constitutes, apart from its uniqueness, one great archaeological, literary, and historical artifact.