More on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri -- Don't Believe Everything you Read

Sarah Lyell has a nice piece in the NYT/IHT debunking recent claims in the press that new scanning techniques have lead to a "breakthrough" in translating the documents and has revealed important new information about the ancient world. From her account it is clear, as I suspected [and posted about] that the story was incredibly hyped.

She writes:

As is so often the case with British newspapers, the [announcement of a "breakthrough"] turned out to be both true and not true. It was right to say that new technology was indeed making it easier, in some cases, to read the Oxyrhynchus material and that new discoveries were being made. But it was not right to say that the technology had just been discovered, or that it was functioning as a sort of Rosetta Stone, or that so many new revelations were emerging as to herald "a second Renaissance."

So it's just the same old, same old.... A scholar laboring in obscurity hooks up with a sensationalist journalist to create an attention-grabbing story. These things happen on an almost weekly basis. The article is a bit misleading, though. This problem is not peculiar to British newspapers. American scholars and semi-literate journalists engage in the same practices. And, I might point out, the hallowed NYT is not above hyping questionable stories, especially when they support its ideological agenda.

Read the article here. For my previous posts on the subject go here and follow the links.