OXYRHYNCHUS UPDATE: On the Ars Technica forum an anonymous papyrology student at the University of Chicago is expressing serious skepticism about Sunday's Independent article on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. The writer sums up:

So as of right now, the rest of the papyrological community is waiting to hear Dirk Obbink at Oxford either back up for disavow the claims made in the article. At the very best, the Independent's reporters are covering some kind of new imaging breakthrough in an extremely hyperbolic fashion. And at the worst, they're trying to make a major story out of 20-year-old news.

My correspondence also seems to indicate that papyrologists who ought to have known already about these new texts if they were real haven't heard anything about them.

David Meadows notes some more media coverage here

Developing ...

UPDATE: Paul Nikkel e-mails:

I do believe Hannibal at Ars is Jon Stokes. Just so you can give him proper credit.

As I wrote initially at deinde when this came up, even if there was some breakthrough in the "spectral analysis" the real problem of piecing together the fragments still remains. This is the same point brought up by Meadows and Stokes. The fact that the Independent article doesn't mention anything about the fragment problem seems to indicate there's nothing substantial to report here. A statement from the Oxford team would certainly clear the issue quickly.

I certainly agree with that. Oxford papyrologists, speak!