Earlier we talked about the oldest preserved intact book in Europe. That punctuation, intact , is important because without it the oldest book in Europe turns out to be the Derveni Papyrus .
The Derveni Papyrus was found in 1962 in the town of the same name, about 10 kilometers from Thessaloniki in Greece, during construction works on the road to Kavala. These works brought to light numerous tombs, in one of which, the so-called Derveni Tomb A, the document appeared charred and divided into more than 200 fragments.
It is dated to the 4th century BC, between the years 350 and 320. Until 2006 it could not be deciphered its content, which turned out to be a commentary on an Orphic poem. Written as a philosophical treatise, it addresses issues such as the nature of the gods, the soul, the cosmos, and religious rituals.
Its author is unknown, although given the criticism towards religion and the mysteries that seem to emerge from the interpretation of the text, some think that it may be due to Diagoras de Melos or to Euthyphro , among others. Euthyphro appears in the Platonic dialogue of the same name, and Diagoras of Melos was also known as the Atheist and he is famous for having revealed the Eleusinian mysteries, earning himself a death sentence in Athens for it in 411 B.C. (However, he managed to escape to Corinth.)
Currently the Derveni Papyrus is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. And since 2015 it has been part of the Memory of the World Program (Memory of the World ) from UNESCO. This program, which was born in 1992, has the mission of conserving and guaranteeing public access to the documentary historical heritage of all the peoples of the world.
In the Memory of the World there are from ancient documents, such as the Derveni Papyrus, to modern films, such as The Wizard of Oz, including documents such as the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Diary of Anne Frank or the films of the Lumiere brothers.