Le calame et la pierre. A critical history of ancient Egyptian literature (continued)

Although they can't be described as literary, the first inscribed documents, as we saw earlier, were intended to identify a person or a good. This is the approach we have chosen to take in the transition from enumeration to constructed forms, from the "weak" form to an elaboration that goes beyond mere utility [1]. We followed its birth last year, until we saw the outline of a first literary form, one that gives access to eternal survival through the perpetuation of the name and the indispensable offering. The irreducible conditions of its effectiveness are threefold: direct representation, the statement of the name and titles restoring the social identity of the beneficiary and, finally, the description of the offering. In the early days, this essential trilogy was expressed almost pictogrammatically. One example is the wooden panels from Hezirê preserved in Cairo [2]: a carefully thought-out layout organizes names and titles above the standing figure, who faces the enumeration of the offering. The process became systematized, until it reached the canonical form of the "placards" that adorn the chapel entrance. The meticulousness of the representation is accompanied by a development in the form of an enumerated text, itself completed by a table summarizing the offerings and quantities [3].

References

[1] Pascal Vernus, "Two metaphors betraying a literary elaboration", Philippika, vol. 41, 2013, pp. 229-240; id, ""Literature", "literary" and writing media. Contribution à une théorie de la littérature dans l'Égypte pharaonique", EDAL, vol. 2, 2012, p. 20-145.

[2] GSC 1430, acacia wood. Discovered in 1866 in Mariette's mastaba "A3" at Saqqara, they date from the reign of Djoser (^3rd dynasty, early ^26th century BC).

[3] For example, Louvre E 15591: painted limestone stele of Nefertiabet, princess of the reign of Cheops (4th^dynasty , mid-20th^century BC), from her tomb (G1225) in the western cemetery of Giza.