The Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt: Recording the Reigns of Pharaohs

While the colossal pyramids, towering granite obelisks, and temple reliefs of ancient Egypt were all designed to communicate the majesty and eternity of the king, they represent a very carefully selected and filtered message. Massive stone monuments captured the achievements of dynasties, the rituals of the priesthood, and the theological principles of the state. Yet, the daily lives of the real people who built them, who maintained them, and who ruled over them, were recorded on much more accessible and plentiful material — papyrus.

Made from the reeds that grew in abundance along the banks of the Nile Delta, this fibrous writing surface was used in the ancient world for thousands of years. On this malleable, light brown sheet, the scribes and bureaucrats of ancient Egypt, its doctors and priests, its merchants and farmers, recorded every detail of their daily life. Their words, frozen on the thin layer of papyrus, survive today as the most immediate and direct insight into the lives of the people who lived thousands of years ago.

I. The Material Culture of Papyrus

The plant that gave the nation its name was inextricably linked to the local landscape and mythology. The triangular emblem of the plant represented lower Egypt and was often associated with the concepts of life and fertility.

A. The Manufacturing Process of Papyrus Paper

The manufacturing process of papyrus was highly complex and involved multiple stages. First, the reed was cut into pieces, and the thin layer of white pith was peeled off. The pith was then sliced into thin layers that were subsequently arranged in two sets of parallel rows – one set of which ran horizontally, the other vertically. After being pressed together, the fibers were hammered to expel some of the liquid, thus activating the glue-like properties of the cellulose. The resulting sheet was then smoothed with shells or ivory and was ready to be used for writing. Several such sheets were then attached to each other with their edges facing inwards, thus forming a roll.

B. Trade, Economy, and Administration: The Use of Papyrus in Ancient Egypt

Because of the high demand from the neighboring Mediterranean states, papyrus was one of the most traded goods in ancient Egypt. The plant was highly sought after by the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, who used it to write administrative and accounting documents. Locally, papyrus was considered a luxury good – it is known that the blank space on older papyri often was reused for new writings after being scraped clean.

II. Administrative Papyri: The Bureaucratic Machine of Ancient Egypt

The surviving government papyri illustrate the high level of organization of the ancient Egyptian state, as well as the centrality of scribes to its functioning. Even at the local level, authorities had to employ hundreds of scribes to keep track of revenues, audit private land holdings, and ensure the functioning of the grain storage facilities.

A. Taxation, Auditing, Leases, and Land Holdings

Since the economic base of ancient Egypt was primarily agriculture, taxes were paid in grain, livestock, and labor. The papyri contain a wealth of information about the fiscal policy of ancient Egypt, the economic potential of the local state, and its ability to raise resources at any given moment. They also illustrate how Egypt’s fiscal policy evolved over time, shifting from direct taxation to indirect payment in kind. Using papyrus, the scribes measured the plots of land several months after the annual inundation of the Nile to assess their yield. All revenues, expenditures, and audits were meticulously recorded on these paper sheets.

B. Marriage Contracts, Property Inheritance, Theft, and Fraud

The papyri contain a wealth of information on the legal aspects of social relations in ancient Egypt. For instance, marriage contracts, property inheritances, and theft were all documented by the authorities. Some papyri survive today as records of criminal cases that were brought before the local judges. Among the most famous examples of such documents are the Mayer papyri and the Abbott papyrus that illustrate the investigation process and the cross-examination of witnesses in the case of the robbery of royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

C. Labor, Strikes, and Living Standards

The papyri found in Deir el-Medina, the village of artisans who built and decorated the royal tombs, illustrate the living standards and working conditions of the average Egyptian. The so-called Strike Papyrus that survives today as a piece in the Turin museum records the first known strike in history that happened in the ancient world. When the grain supplies to Deir el-Medina were delayed, the workers who built the pharaonic tombs halted their work and proceeded to the local mortuary temples and protested until their wages were paid.

III. Medical Texts on Papyrus: Surgical Practices, Pharmacology, and Healing

The technical papyri that discuss medical theories, surgical practices, and pharmacology are among the most interesting finds in Egypt. They reveal that the ancient Egyptians had quite advanced knowledge of the human body, although their practice was often intertwined with superstition.

A. The Edwin Smith Papyrus: Diseases and Surgical Treatments

Dating back to the Second Intermediate Period and later augmented during the Old Kingdom, the Edwin Smith Papyrus represents the first medical treatise in history. Unlike many other contemporary foreign medical texts that attributed diseases to supernatural causes, the Edwin Smith Papyrus treats them clinically. It contains forty-eight chapters that describe the treatment of various diseases with a combination of surgery and drugs. The text also illustrates the anatomical understanding of the human body, describing the locations of individual bones and the effects of different injuries. Honey, for instance, was used as an antiseptic to heal open wounds, while papyrus bandages were used to secure the fractured bones.

B. The Ebers Papyrus: Diseases, Drugs, and Witchcraft

This technical writing has survived in the form of a twenty-meter-long scroll that contains more than eight hundred healing spells and medical prescriptions. It also illustrates the variety of ailments that were treated by the ancient Egyptian physicians, including abscesses, eye and skin diseases, toothaches, and parasitic infections. The Ebers Papyrus describes in detail the pharmacological properties of various remedies made from castor oil, opium, coriander, and honey.

IV. Personal Letters and Literary Classics of Ancient Egypt

Personal letters and literature are also found on papyrus. They represent the thoughts, feelings, and voices of ordinary people from ancient Egypt, as well as the literary and philosophical traditions of the country.

A. Private Letters: Love, Money, Disobedience, and Family Affairs

Written in cursive hieratic or demotic script, the private letters illustrate the emotional relationships between the writers and their addressees. Similar to modern-day private correspondence, the letters revealed the affection between parents and their children, as well as the domestic concerns of the writers. Some letters informed their recipients about the financial state of the families, while others lamented about the lack of resources or the disobedience of children. All in all, the letters demonstrated that the personal relationships and domestic values of the ancient Egyptians were not very different from those of the modern society.

B. Storytelling, Wisdom Sayings, and Love Poetry

Ancient Egyptian literature was also recorded on papyrus. Many mythological tales and heroic legends were written on papyrus scrolls and were later narrated in the courts of pharaohs and common city dwellers. The story of Sinuhe, the shipwrecked sailor, and the doomed prince are three well-known adventure tales from ancient Egypt. The local wisdom sayings, or the teachings of the fathers, were also recorded on papyrus. They contained advice on how to behave as a decent person and what virtues to cultivate. In ancient Egypt, poetry was also a popular means of expressing emotions. Love poetry in particular was a vibrant tradition, as the surviving papyri show. Songs of young people, who admired the beauty of their beloved and mourned their losses, still live today through the papyrus sheets on which they were once written.

V. The Fragile Legacy of Papyrus: Conservation and Archaeological Discoveries

Today, most papyrus documents are fragile and require special conditions to be maintained. Due to the high humidity of the Nile Delta region, the reed papers decay relatively quickly. Therefore, most of the discovered papyri were found in the desert climate of Middle and Upper Egypt, where the dryness of the air prevented the sheets from rotting. The dry climate of the tomb chambers, as well as the local abandoned ancient settlements, was especially beneficial for the preservation of ancient manuscripts. The large number of papyrus discoveries in Oxyrhynchus, Tebtunis, Deir el-Medina, and other localities is due to the fact that thousands of documents were buried there with their owners.

Conclusion

While the imposing stone structures of ancient Egypt were meant to last forever, impressing future generations with the power and majesty of the ancient kingdom, they only survived as long as the pharaohs ruled. It was the thin, fragile layer of papyrus that preserved the voices of the past, keeping the voices of ordinary people, their worries, and hopes alive for millennia.

By reading these ancient messages, modern-day scholars and their contemporaries can listen to the words of ancient Egyptians. The papyrus sheet brings them closer to the real voices of the past – the voices of the kings, the priests, the scribes, and the ordinary people who lived and worked in ancient Egypt. Through the medium of papyrus, the modern reader can read the ancient love letters and retrace the steps of the criminal investigation. One can discover ancient medical practices and laugh at the silly arguments of husband and wife. In short, papyrus makes the ancient world think and feel.