The Middle Kingdom was a time when art, architecture, and religion reached new heights but, above all, it was an age of confidence in writing, no doubt encouraged by the growth of the ‘middle class’ and the scribal sector of society, which was in turn due in no small measure to the expansion of the bureaucracy under Senusret III. Many different literary forms flourished, and the ancient Egyptians themselves appear to have regarded it as the ‘classical’ era of literature. Such narratives as the Story of Sinuhe (the popularity of which is indicated by the many copies that have survived). The Shipwrecked Sailor, and the fantastical episodes in Papyrus Westcar were all composed in the Middle Kingdom, while religious and philosophical works (such as the Hymn to Hapy, the Satire of the Trades, and the Dialogue between a Man Tired of Life and his ‘Ba) were also very popular. Furthermore, a wide variety of official documents have survived, including reports, letters and accounts, which not only help to round out the overall picture of the period but also indicate that literacy was more widespread than it had been during the Old Kingdom.
Under the direction of the Middle Kingdom rulers, Egypt had its eyes opened to the wider world of Nubia, Asia, and the Aegean, benefiting from the exchange of materials, products, and ideas. The Middle Kingdom was an age of tremendous invention, great vision, and colossal projects, yet there was also careful and elegant attention to detail in the creation of the smallest items of everyday use and decoration. This more human scale is present in the pervading sense that individual human beings had become more significant in cosmic terms, whether in terms of their obligations to the state (through taxation and the corvee work), their provisions for burial, or their increased presence within the literature of the times. Neither Sinuhe nor the ‘shipwrecked sailor’ could ever have been central characters in any Old Kingdom tale, but these individuals sit comfortably in the literature of the Middle Kingdom, which was an age of greater humanity.
World History
