Through the Eras

LiteratureAncient Egyptian scarabs. THE ART ARCHIVE/EGYPTIAN MUSEUM TURIN/DAGLI ORTI.composition. For example, an anonymous author composedthe text known as The Teachings of Ptahhotep inthe Middle Kingdom (2008 to after 1630 B.C.E.) usingas the narrator a vizier who lived in the reign of KingDjedkare Isesy (2415–2371 B.C.E.) during the Old Kingdom,approximately 400 years before the text was composed.Only one known copy of the text dates to theMiddle Kingdom, the time of composition. The threeother copies known to scholars all date to the New Kingdom(1539–1075 B.C.E.) about 500 years after the compositionand one thousand years after the setting foundin the text. When scholars first examined the text, theyassumed that Ptahhotep himself composed it in the OldKingdom. In the late twentieth century, as scholarslearned more about the differences between the dialectsof the Old Kingdom (Old Egyptian) and the MiddleKingdom (Middle Egyptian) they realized that the languagein the text mostly reflects the way scribes talkedand composed in Middle Egyptian rather than OldEgyptian. This study resulted in reassigning the text toa composition date in the Middle Kingdom. Copies revealtheir dates through the handwriting on them. Thestudy of handwriting, called paleography, reveals thatscribes used particular letter forms in particular periods.Paleographers compare the forms of particular signsfound in dated copies to undated copies to establish thedate of a copy. In general, scholars agree more often onthe date of a copy than they do on the date of compositionfor particular texts. Dating texts, naturally, is centralto any understanding of the history of Egyptianliterature.TITLES OF WORKS. The Egyptians probably referredto literary works by the first line, using it as a title.Today scholars assign a name to Egyptian texts, butthere is no authority that can impose one standard titleon each text. Thus in different books it is possible to seeThe Tale of Sinuhe, The Story of Sinuhe, or even just Sinuheused as the title of the Egyptians’ great national epicpoem. In this book, the titles for the texts are listed inthe section on the Egyptian literary canon near the endof the chapter. There are also some examples found inancient literature that refer to the “Book of Sinuhe” usingthe word for “papyrus roll.”SOURCESMiriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature. Vol. I(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).120 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)