The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians

...his interpretation of a passage or the way he rendered a word. I have done so only when based on statements—which are almost certainly correct—found in Battiscombe Gunn’s Battiscombe George Gunn (1883–1950) was an influential English Egyptologist specializing in philology Studies in Egyptian Syntax, or in scholarly original: philological articles by Dr. Gardiner and other authorities. All of these works have appeared since Professor Erman’s book was first published.

I would now like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Erman for the great pleasure I have found in translating this delightful book. I hope he will view my work as a tribute from one of the younger Egyptologists to a great scholar. He pioneered the thorough and systematic research that, over the last thirty years, has so greatly expanded our knowledge of Egyptian grammar, syntax the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences, and of Egyptian philology the study of language in oral and written historical sources as a whole.

While this book was already being printed, an interesting article by Battiscombe Gunn regarding King Snefru Snefru was the founding pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom appeared in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (volume 12, pages 250 and following). It should certainly be read in connection with the stories and other compositions appearing on pages 38, 67, and 112 of this volume.