The Papyrus Carlsberg Collection houses an invaluable collection
of ancient papyrus manuscripts. At its center are the remains
of the Tebtunis temple library, a unique archaeological
discovery that represents the only large-scale institional library
preserved from ancient Egypt. The papyri, which date to the
first two centuries of the common era, were found in cellars below
a building within the temple enclosure where they had been
left when the temple was abandoned in the early third century
AD. Estimated at several hundred manuscripts, this is the richest
assemblage of Egyptian literary papyri known to date. It preserves
a broad range of texts, including detailed manuals on the
performance of various rituals, religious compendia and treatises,
scientific texts concerned with divination and medicine,
and narrative literature. The texts shed detailed light on the operation
of a temple and its priesthood, and many of the literary
works are otherwise unknown.