Through the Eras

OVERVIEWof LiteratureLONG TRADITION. Ancient Egyptian authors producedliterature for a 2,500-year period, making it oneof the longest continuous literary traditions in world history.Ancient Egyptian literature began as hieroglyphicautobiographical accounts on the tomb walls of kings andnobles, and developed on papyrus, wooden tablets, andlimestone chips over the centuries into several recognizablegenres, including poetry, historical accounts, teachings,and stories. Despite its rich tradition, however,ancient Egyptian literature has not received the scholarlyattention given to other ancient writings, such as thosein Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. While scholars have beenable to develop accurate translations and methods for uncoveringthe underlying meaning of Latin, Greek, andHebrew texts since the fifteenth century, the study ofEgyptian texts is a relatively new field, begun in the nineteenthcentury. And while the literature of ancient Greeceand Rome as well as Hebrew texts like the Old Testamentof the Bible are considered landmarks of world literature,ancient Egyptian literature is still an obscurebranch of world literary tradition with virtually no readershipbeyond the Egyptologist community.LOSS AND RECOVERY. The reason scholarship of ancientEgyptian literature has lagged so far behind that ofother ancient writings stems from the difficulties of translatingthe language. From the late fifth century C.E. until1822, the ancient Egyptian language was lost, largely dueto changes in the language brought about by the conqueringof Egypt by foreign nations: first the Greeks in332 B.C.E., and then the Arabs in 642 C.E. Though Coptic,the last developmental stage of ancient Egyptian, continuedto be spoken as the language of prayer for EgyptianChristians, the official government language in Egypt wasGreek after Alexander the Great conquered the countryin the fourth century B.C.E. Three centuries later, Egyptunderwent another dramatic language shift when the conqueringArabs introduced the Arabic language and the Islamicreligion to the nation. Now twice removed fromtheir ancient tongue, Egyptians were no longer able to decipherancient texts; these writings remained unknown forcenturies until the first modern Egyptologist, J.-F. Champollioncracked the code of hieroglyphics on the RosettaStone in 1822. This translation did not remove all thebarriers to the study of literature, however, as ancientEgyptian literature comprises texts written in five dialectsand six different scripts. More translations would have tofollow, slowly building on the Rosetta-Stone translation.NOT MUCH EVIDENCE. The problem of translationwas not the only barrier to the study of ancient Egyptianliterature, however. The surviving texts of what maybe truly classified as literature include only about fiftyexamples, most in fragmented condition. The absence ofinscribed dates and authors’ names makes it difficult forscholars to pin down dates of composition, particularlywhen the surviving work is actually a copy of a text writtenin a much earlier period. The difficulty is compoundedwhen, as is often the case, the setting of a textis historical. Many Twelfth-dynasty (1938–1759 B.C.E.)authors, for example, set their texts in the Fourth Dynasty(2625–2500 B.C.E.), which confused many latenineteenth-century scholars into believing that certainMiddle Kingdom texts represented works from the OldKingdom. Though these texts can now be sorted intoapproximate time periods, the absolute order in whichthey were written has not yet been established.LIMITED INTERPRETATIONS. The lack of a completebody of works poses additional problems to scholarly interpretationof ancient Egyptian literature. Few texts arecomplete; some lack beginnings, others the middle, stillothers the end of the text. These fragments only provideclues to major themes, and the absence of a “big picture”can skew modern perspective. The problem of interpretationlooms larger when scholars look beyond individualtexts and attempt to draw conclusions on the basis of thelarger body of surviving works. For example, there aredozens of copies of The Story of Sinuhe preserved whilethere is only one copy of The Shipwrecked Sailor, perhapsbecause Sinuhe was a model copied by students. If scholarscould be certain that this ratio accurately reflected thebody of Egyptian literature as a whole as opposed to thatwhich survived, they could draw the conclusion that Sinuhewas much more important than Shipwrecked Sailor inEgyptian culture. It is not clear, however, whether the survivalof a greater number of Sinuhe texts is an accident ofpreservation or whether there were more copies around tosurvive. A similar problem exists with apparent gaps in literaryproduction. In the New Kingdom (1539–1075B.C.E.), for example, there are many important narrativesdating to the Nineteenth Dynasty (1292–1190 B.C.E.) andno narratives dating to the equally important Eighteenth114 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)