ACKERMANAt a glance
History, context & interpretation
The text and its story
A charred roll found in 1962 in a tomb near Thessaloniki. It interprets an Orphic poem about the creation of the gods and discusses rites for the dead.
Traditional attribution
A commentary on a secret Orphic poem.
Historical scholarship
Author unknown; partly burned on a funeral pyre, which preserved it.
Context and curiosity
It is on UNESCO's Memory of the World register.
Chronology and transmission
This text belongs to Greece & Rome (Macedonia). The catalogue gives its approximate dating as c. 340 BCE (copy); text c. 400 BCE and original language or script as Ancient Greek. The dated manuscript witnesses and traditional claims may not refer to the same historical event.
Sources and further reading
Historical descriptions are educational summaries. Religious traditions, scholarly interpretations and unverified claims are distinguished where possible; imagery may be illustrative rather than an artifact photograph.
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