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Ancient Egyptian literature was written in the
Egyptian language from
Ancient Egypt 's
pharaonic period until the end of
Roman domination . Along with
Sumerian literature , it is considered the world's
earliest literature .
Writing in Ancient Egypt first appeared in the late 4th millennium BC. By the
Old Kingdom , literary works included
funerary texts ,
epistles and letters, religious hymns and poems, and commemorative
autobiographical texts. It was not until the early
Middle Kingdom that a narrative Egyptian literature was created.
Middle Egyptian , the
spoken language of the Middle Kingdom, became a
classical language during the
New Kingdom , when the
vernacular language known as
Late Egyptian first appeared in writing. Scribes of the New Kingdom
canonized and copied many literary texts written in Middle Egyptian, which remained the language used for oral readings of sacred hieroglyphic texts. Ancient Egyptian literature has been preserved on a wide variety of media, including
papyrus scrolls and packets, limestone or ceramic
ostraca , wooden writing boards,
monumental stone edifices and
coffins . Hidden caches of literature, buried for thousands of years, have been discovered in settlements on the dry desert margins of Egyptian civilization. (
more... )
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