HOUSTON, TEXAS—Grant Adamson of Rice University has translated a papyrus discovered 100 years ago outside a temple in the Egyptian town of Tebtunis. Infrared images of the papyrus have made parts of the text, written mostly in Greek, more legible. It is a letter written 1,800 years ago by an Egyptian soldier named Aurelius Polion, who was serving in a Roman legion in Europe. He is desperate to hear from his family, and wants to make the long journey home to see his mother, sister, and brother. “I think that some aspects of military service belong to a common experience across ancient and modern civilizations—part of our human experience in general really. Things like worry and homesickness,” Adamson told Live Science.