TM Gallery info The Artemidorus Papyrus (TM 65868) is a 1st century (?) papyrus preserving a long fragment of the geographer Artemidoros of Ephesos, a map that was probably meant to accompany it, and some drawings of animals and fantasy creatures as well as sketches of body parts.
It was acquired on the antqiuities market in 2004 by an Italian bank for a large sum, despite its murky provenience. At the occasion of an exhibit in 2007, an Italian scholar claimed the papyrus was a fake by an infamous figure Simonides, known from other attempted falsifications. Various arguments have been brought forward, from lexicography, style and palaeography, to methods from the sciences to study the ink. It also needed to be determined whether an image of the papyrus before wrapping was itself authentic or not. In 2018 a judge concluded on the basis of circumstantial evidence that the papyrus was a forgery of the 19th century, and that the antiquities dealer who sold it could not be prosecuted. Despite this ruling, the scholarly community remains divided over the authenticity of the text.