The Middle Kingdom, from the IXth to the XVIIth Dynasty, shows a great
literary development. Historical records of some length are not
uncommon. The funerary inscriptions descriptive of character and
achievement are often remarkable.
Many papyri of this period have survived: the *Prisse Papyrus of
'Proverbs,' a papyrus discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie with the *'Hymn
to Usertesen III.,' papyri at Berlin containing a *dialogue between a
man and his soul, the *'Story of Sanehat,' the 'Story of the Sekhti,'
and a very remarkable fragment of another story; besides the 'Westcar
Papyrus of Tales' and at St. Petersburg the *'Shipwrecked Sailor.' The
productions of this period were copied in later times; the royal
*'Teaching of Amenemhat,' and the worldly *'Teaching of Dauf' as to the
desirability of a scribe's career above any other trade or profession,
exist only in late copies. Doubtless much of the later literature was
copied from the texts of the Middle Kingdom. There are also *treatises
extant on medicine and arithmetic. Portions of the Book of the Dead are
found inscribed on tombs and sarcophagi.