»In which we can tear the weaving from our loom

Scraps of papyri arrive at Berkeley, and the crocodiles in the Nile are shivering. The Tebtunis Papyri form the largest and most bewildering collection of ancient writings in the US.

Though it took 105 years for the papyri to reach the campus, Berkeley was spared the long anxiety endured by Penelope, Odysseus' long-suffering wife. Berkeley didn't even know the missing material existed until three years ago.

Berkeley's papyrologist, Todd Hickey, discovered the materials were stranded on a distant island called Great Britain, where they were being held by a notorious document-hoarding tribe known as Oxford dons.

The bulk of the material -- much of it found in the wrappings of crocodile mummies at the ancient city of Tebtunis -- made its way to Berkeley early last century to form what campus officials say is the largest papyri collection in the Western Hemisphere.