We could say that the Oxyrhynchus papyri are a sort of time capsule miraculously preserving not only the literature but the daily life that was taking place some 2000 years ago, in the so called Hellenistic era. Actually these papyri were discovered at an archaeological excavation of an ancient rubbish dump near the Hellenistic town of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt.

Among some unknown-until-now literary works and many prosaic documents (like various transactions' receipts and wedding invitations) there have been found several informal and formal types of horoscopes. These horoscopes are revealing to us the methods, the skills and the shortcomings of the astrologers of the time.