Papyrus Anastasi I

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Papyrus Anastasi I (officially designated papyrus British Museum 10247) is an ancient Egyptian papyrus containing a satirical text used for the training of scribes during the Ramesside Period. One scribe, an army scribe, Hori, writes to his fellow scribe, Amenemope, in such a way as to ridicule the irresponsible and second-rate nature of Amenemope's work.

The letter gives examples of what a scribe was supposed to be able to deal with: calculating the number of rations which have to be doled out to a certain number of soldiers digging a lake or the quantity of bricks needed to erect a ramp of given dimensions , assessing the number of men needed to move an obelisk or erect a statue, organizing the supply of provisions for an army. In a long section Hori discusses the geography of the Mediterranean coast as far north as the Lebanon and the troubles which might beset a traveller there.

This papyrus is important to historians and Bible scholars above all for the information it supplies about towns in Syria and Canaan during the New Kingdom

References

• Alan H. Gardiner Egyptian Hieratic Texts - Series I: Literary Texts of the New Kingdom, Part I, Leipzig 1911
• K. A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, Blackwell 2000

Links

• Gardiner's translation of Papyrus Anastasi I

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Last updated on Friday November 09, 2007 at 04:41:52 PST (GMT -0800)
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