In October 1731, a fire at London’s Ashburnham House destroyed portions of the Old Royal Library and the Cotton library. Fortunately, the Old Royal Library’s most precious object, the Codex ...

Instead, the papyrus was created as a commemorative record of a pharaonic expedition, perhaps during the reign of Ramesses IV (r. ca. 1153–1147 B.C.), to a bekhen-stone quarry.