Westcar Papyrus

E131119

The Westcar Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian text containing a collection of magical tales and wonder stories set in the court of King Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Westcar Papyrus canonical 3

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (50)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Middle Egyptian narrative
ancient Egyptian papyrus
literary text
short story cycle
acquiredBy Karl Richard Lepsius
acquisitionByLepsiusDate 1840s
approximateDateOfComposition circa 1800 BCE
associatedDynastyInNarrative Fourth Dynasty of Egypt
associatedDynastyInProphecy Fifth Dynasty of Egypt
containsMotif magicians performing wonders before the king
miraculous births of kings
prophecy of dynastic succession
containsStory tale of Dedi and the secret number of the chambers of Thoth
tale of the birth of the first three kings of the Fifth Dynasty
tale of the ebony box and the missing ornament
tale of the wax crocodile
countryOfOrigin Pharaonic Egypt
surface form: Ancient Egypt
currentCity Berlin
currentCountry Germany
currentLocation Neues Museum
surface form: Ägyptisches Museum Berlin
dateOfComposition Middle Kingdom of Egypt
earliestPublicationLanguage German
featuresCharacter Dedi the magician
Djedefre
surface form: Djedefra

Hordjedef
Khafre
Khufu
firstEditor Karl Richard Lepsius
genre court tales
magical stories
wonder tales
language Middle Egyptian
mainSetting royal court of King Khufu
material papyrus
museumInventoryNumber P. Berlin 3033
namedAfter Henry Westcar
numberOfColumns approximately 12
placeOfDiscovery unknown
previousOwner Henry Westcar
relatedWork The Tale of Sinuhe
surface form: Tale of Sinuhe

The Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor
surface form: Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor
scriptDirection right-to-left
setInDynasty Fourth Dynasty of Egypt
setInPeriod reign of Khufu
significance important evidence for Egyptian magical and religious beliefs
key text for the ideology of kingship in the Middle Kingdom
major source for ancient Egyptian narrative literature
stateOfPreservation fragmentary
studiedInDiscipline Egyptology
writingSystem hieratic script

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Khufu attestedBy Westcar Papyrus
Baufra knownFrom Westcar Papyrus
Hordjedef mentionedIn Westcar Papyrus