
is seen in passages which reflect events and conditions previous to the union of the two Lands, for example, the hostility between North and South, before the time of the first king, Menes in the mode of burying bodies of the dead in the sand in the pre-civilized era reflected in the so-called Cannibal Hymn and in the many references to the assembling of the bones of the deceased, passages which indicate a pre-mummification period. Evidence of a date previous to about 3000 B.C. These inscriptions together with others were after that probably written on papyrus and potsherds, many of which in time perished, the rest remaining in various forms until they were collected and incised on the walls of the Saḳḳâreh h pyramids. Indeed, some of them possibly existed in oral form before the art of writing was developed. It is, however, certain that many of these texts came into existence before the final union of Upper and Lower Egypt, and perhaps long before that date, which is now put at about 3000 B.C. Thus, according to the present generally accepted chronology, these pyramids were constructed, and apparently inscribed, between the years about 2350 to 2175 B.C. To this translation has been added that of recently discovered additional texts, parallel and complementary, in the pyramids of Oudjebten, Neit, and Apouit, queens of Pepi II, and of Ibi, a king of the Seventh Dynasty, of whom little historically is known. These pyramids are those of the kings Unis of the Fifth Dynasty, and Teti, Pepi I, Merenrē‘ and Pepi II of the Sixth Dynasty. The famous Pyramid Texts herein translated for the first time in English with commentary were found inscribed on the walls of five pyramids at Saḳḳâreh, the ancient necropolis of Memphis in Egypt.
