The city of Oxyrhynchus thrived between 400 BC and AD 350 before vanishing beneath the Egyptian sands. But 50,000 fragments of papyri survived in the city's rubbish dumps, preserved by the dry heat, until they were unearthed by two Victorian archaeologists. A century later, in this four-part series, the voices of an ancient people speak to us forthe first time.
1: Rubbish Tips and Riches. Writer and broadcaster Michael Kustow charts the discovery of the Oxyrhynchus papyri by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt. The find rocked the world of archaeology and fired the public imagination. Readers Fiona Shaw , Larry Lamb and Michael Perceval-Maxwell , Producer Amanda Hargreaves