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The World’s Oldest Missing Page

A missing page, dated November 411, has been reunited with the oldest dated Christian text in existence.

Written by a scribe in Edessa (modern day Turkey), the text lists Christian martyrs killed in Persia. The text, known only by its catalogue code: ADD 12-150, has been held in the British library since 1840.

Scholars and historians alike were puzzled over the missing page, which was recently located underneath the floor of the Deir al-Surian monastery in Egypt.

A leading Syriac scholar from Oxford University, Dr Sebastian Brock, said “it was very exciting to identify it” and hopes that the now completed text will aid an understanding of the fifth century.

By Sophie Pitman

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