Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt

CONTRARY to the popular and current impression the most important body of sacred literature in Egypt is not the Book of the Dead but a much older literature which we now call the Pyramid Texts. These texts preserved in the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty Pyramids at Sakkara form the oldest body of literature surviving from the ancient world and disclose to us the earliest chapter in the intellectual history of man as preserved to modern times. They are to the study of Egyptian language and civilization what the Vedas have been in the study of early East Indian and Aryan culture. Discovered in 1880-81 they were published by Maspero in a pioneer edition which will always remain a great achievement and a landmark in the history of Egyptology.