The 24th International Congress of Papyrology was held at the University of Helsinki from August 1 to 7, 2004. Of some 150 papers read at the congress, 87 are published in these Proceedings. The contributions are only slightly edited due to the fact that the most time consuming part of the process was to solve modern technological problems involved in, e.g., various Greek, Coptic, Hebrew, Demotic, etc. fonts. As this is a conference volume, it was found difficult to restrict the publication of the written communications which followed the given guidelines for contributions.