ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Blacas papyri

Okay kiddo, so imagine if you will, a long long time ago, before there were any computers or even books as we know them today. People used to write things down on special sheets made out of a plant called papyrus. These sheets were thin and made a rustling sound when they were moved.

Now, there was a really important group of people called the Egyptians who used to write all sorts of things on papyrus sheets. They would write about their history, their religion, their daily life, and even their laws! They would roll up these sheets and put them in jars or boxes for safekeeping.

Fast forward to today, some of these jars and boxes have been found by archaeologists who dig into the ground searching for clues to help us understand what life was like back then. And guess what they found! Some of the papyrus sheets were still in there, all rolled up and waiting to be read.

One of the most important collections of these papyri was found in a place called Blacas, which is how they got their name, the Blacas Papyri. These papyri give us a really good idea of what the Egyptians wrote about and what they believed in over 2000 years ago!

So there you have it, the Blacas Papyri are just really old sheets of paper that tell us about how the Egyptians used to live a long time ago.