The Papyrus of Artemidorus

From Wednesday 8 October 2014 the guided tour of the Archaeological Museum of Polo Reale in Turin proposes a new exhibition dedicated to the Papyrus of Artemidorus, an extraordinary evidence consists of fragments of various sizes for a length of about 2.5 meters.
On the basis of the dating analyzes performed with the technique of Carbon-14, the support of papyrus was produced between the first century BC and the second century AD, while it remains controversial dating of the contents, the subject of two competing theories: one considers the papyrus texts and contemporary designs and built in the first century AD, while the other considers those factors intervention of one or more of the counterfeiters nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
On the front are the remains of five columns of text in greek and a map; In fact, the membership includes the introduction of an unknown author and a geographical text devoted to the description of a part of the Iberian Peninsula, identified with a portion of the work of Artemidorus of Ephesus, who lived between the second and first centuries BC, Ta Geographoumena or Geographia, a treatise in eleven books, particularly well-known in the ancient world. On the other hand, are seen to over 40 drawings of animals, real or imaginary, carried out during the first century AD, when the roll was 'recycled' in a workshop where artists repertoire of models for frescoes or mosaics. On the front there are also drawings of heads that resemble sculptures, along with drawings of hands and feet in different positions, probably years of apprentices in the shop.
While in the halo of puzzles originated in the years from scientific debate, the Papyrus of Artemidorus is a finding unique and unusual, belonging to the Compagnia di San Paolo di Torino. After the exhibition, which took place in 2006 at the Palazzo Bricklehampton, this fascinating testimony of the ancient world is now offered to the public thanks to the collaboration between the Compagnia di San Paolo and the Ministry of Heritage and Culture and Tourism, through the activities of its organizations in the area: the Regional Directorate for Cultural Heritage and Landscape of Piedmont and the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Piedmont and the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. Loan granted by the Compagnia di San Paolo to the Regional Directorate for Cultural Heritage and Landscape of Piedmont, the Artemidorus Papyrus can be so admired in the frame of the Archaeological Museum, housed in an exhibition space divided into environments specifically designed in order to enhance the enjoyment, thanks to the support of educational multimedia.

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