Legal deposit in the ancient world

This is the earliest surviving fragment of Homer's Odyssey made in the age of Ptolemaic Egypt (3rd century BC). It measures 19.1 cm in length and it was found in Hibeh (modern-day Tayu-djayet in Egypt) in 1906. It is now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Under legal deposit legislation, copies of publications must be submitted to c…