Wikipedia:Today's featured article/January 30, 2024

Ancient Egyptian literature was written in the Egyptian language from Ancient Egypt's pharaonic period until the end of Roman domination. Along with Sumerian literature, it is considered the world's earliest literature. Writing in Ancient Egypt (sample pictured) first appeared in the late 4th millennium BC. By the Old Kingdom, literary works included funerary texts, epistles and letters, religious hymns and poems, and commemorative autobiographical texts. Middle Egyptian, the spoken language of the Middle Kingdom, became a classical language preserving a narrative Egyptian literature during the New Kingdom, when Late Egyptian first appeared in writing. Scribes of the New Kingdom canonized and copied many literary texts written in Middle Egyptian, which remained the language used for oral readings of sacred hieroglyphic texts. Ancient Egyptian literature has been preserved on papyrus scrolls and packets, limestone and ceramic ostraca, wooden writing boards, monumental stone edifices, and coffins.