The fragile papyrus,
inscribed it may be 5,000 years ago, is as fresh and legible as when
its first possessor died.
"In Egypt, as far back as the monuments carry us, we find a
highly-developed art, a highly organized government, and a
highly-educated people. Books were multiplied, and if we can trust the
translation of the Proverbs of Ptah-hotep, the oldest existing book in
the world, there were competitive examinations, [civil service!]
already in the age of the sixth Egyptian Dynasty.... We have long
known that the use of writing for literary purposes is immensely old
in both Egypt and Babylonia. Egypt was emphatically a land of scribes
and readers. Already in the days of the Old Empire, the Egyptian
hieroglyphs had developed into a cursive hand."
From the Tel el-Amarna tablets, discovered in Upper Egypt, we know
that for 100 years people were corresponding with each other, in the
language of Babylonia in cuneiform characters. Libraries existed then,
and "Canaan in the Mosaic age, was fully as literary as was Europe in
the time of the Renaissance." Ancient Babylonian monuments testify to
the existence of an ancient literary culture.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41