Westcar Papyrus on display in the Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin
Created
c. 1650 BC
Discovered
Egypt
Present location
Berlin, Germany
The Westcar Papyrus (inventory-designation: P. Berlin 3033) is an ancient Egyptian text containing five stories about miracles performed by priests and magicians. In the papyrus text, each of these tales are told at the royal court of king Khufu (Cheops) (Fourth Dynasty, 26th century BCE) by his sons. The story in the papyrus usually is rendered in English as, "King Cheops and the Magicians"[1] and "The Tale of King Cheops' Court".[2] In German, into which the text of the Westcar Papyrus was first translated, it is rendered as Die Märchen des Papyrus Westcar ("the fairy tales of Papyrus Westcar").[3][4]
The surviving material of the Westcar Papyrus consists of twelve columns written in hieratic script. Miriam Lichtheim dates the document to the Hyksos period (eighteenth to sixteenth century BC) and states that it is written in classical Middle Egyptian.[5] Linguist and Egyptologist Verena Lepper [de] thinks it is possible that the Westcar Papyrus was written during the Thirteenth Dynasty. The papyrus has been used by historians as a literary resource for reconstituting the history of the Fourth Dynasty.
The papyrus is now on display under low-light conditions in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin.[4]
^Simpson, William Kelly. (1972). The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, and Poetry. Edited by William Kelly Simpson. Translations by R.O. Faulkner, Edward F. Wente Jr., and William Kelly Simpson. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-01482-1. Page 15.
^Parkinson, R.B. (2002). Poetry and Culture in Middle Kingdom Egypt: A Dark Side to Perfection. London: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-5637-5. p. 295–96.
^Cite error: The named reference AdEr was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abCite error: The named reference VeLe was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol.1, University of California Press 1973, p.215
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the Story of Sinuhe; other well-known works include the WestcarPapyrus and the Ebers papyrus, as well as the famous Book of the Dead. While most literature...
mythical person was inspired by the real prince Djedi, Khufu's nephew. WestcarPapyrus W. M. Flinders Petrie: Medum, London 1892, plate XV (online: [1]) Tales...
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the order in which some predecessors of Khufu are mentioned in the WestcarPapyrus suggests Nebka should be placed between Djoser and Huni, not before...
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from Beit Khallaf, later New Kingdom king lists and in a story of the WestcarPapyrus. If the Beit Khallaf seal impression is indeed a cartouche of Nebka...
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of New Testament papyri Oxyrhynchus Papyri Saite Oracle Papyrus "Egypt Displays Oldest Papyrus, Accounts on Pyramid-Builders - The New York Times". www...
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