Ghost of a flea

Most of the documents date to between AD 800 and 1050. But at least one may be even older. "This piece is probably from the early 8th century, the 700s," said Malczycki, pointing to one document. "Papyrus was very expensive in this period," he added. A set of the material equivalent to our ream of paper might have cost about as much as the monthly rent a shopkeeper would have to pay on his store. "So generally they used every bit of space," writing in a small, neat hand.

"Most of the documents that we have are business letters. We do have a couple of literary texts and some administrative documents," he said. The documents stood the test of time purely by accident. A businessman working in the year 1000 might collect a stack of his correspondence the way people today gather their bills. "Someone would throw it in a box or a jar, in a closet," he said.