© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2006 Mnemosyne, Vol. LIX, Fasc. 2 Also available online – www.brill.nl 1) The excavations were funded by Monash University through grants awarded to the writer and Gillian E. Bowen. 2) Hope 2001 and 2002, 205-6. For a discussion of the latest dated documents from the site see de Jong & Worp 2001. 3) A large number of reports has been published on the excavations and some MINIATURE CODICES FROM KELLIS by COLIN A. HOPE AND K.A. WORP ABSTRACT This article contains a first edition of two wooden mini-codices found during Australian excavations at Ismant el-Kharab (ancient Kellis) in the Dakhleh Oasis (Egypt). The first codex contains fifteen Greek hexameters belonging to an anonymous and unknown parody of Homer; the second codex contains three Greek division tables. Both texts date from the fourth century CE and apparently come from a local school. I. THE DISCOVERY by COLIN A. HOPE The miniature wooden codices, the texts upon which are discussed here by Klaas Worp, were discovered in 2002 during the course of excavations within the Temple of Tutu at Ismant el-Kharab, ancient Kellis, in Egypt’s Dakhleh Oasis. These excavations are conducted by the writer on behalf of the Dakhleh Oasis Project. 1 ) This brief note provides some details of the discovery that might be of relevance in terms of the assessment of the texts. Ismant el-Kharab lies in the south centre of Dakhleh Oasis and comprises a settlement with associated cemeteries that was occupied, on present evidence, from the late Ptolemaic Period until the end of the fourth century. 2 ) It has been under investigation since 1986, and from 1991 the excavations within the Temple of Tutu have been conducted almost annually. 3 )