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.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_literature

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1661:

Two years after his death, Oliver Cromwell's remains were exhumed for a posthumous execution and his head was placed on a spike above Westminster Hall in London, where it remained until 1685. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell%27s_head

1945:

World War II: Allied forces liberated more than 500 prisoners of war from a Japanese POW camp near Cabanatuan in the Philippines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_at_Cabanatuan

2020:

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic to be a public health emergency of international concern. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

softnose: 1. (firearms) Of a bullet: lacking a jacketed nose and thereby deforming greatly on impact, causing a large amount of damage and imparting a great deal of momentum to the target; soft-nosed. 2. (firearms, countable) A bullet of this kind; (uncountable) bullets of this kind collectively. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/softnose

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I wish I could keep war from all Nations; but that is beyond my power. I can at least make certain that no act of the United States helps to produce or to promote war. I can at least make clear that the conscience of America revolts against war and that any Nation which provokes war forfeits the sympathy of the people of the United States.   --Franklin D. Roosevelt https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt