Heqanakht letters

A picture of the

Heqanakht letters from the early Middle Kingdom. The Heqanakht papyri, part of the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, are currently on display in its Egyptian galleries. They consist of 5 complete letters, 4 complete accounts, and four or five fragments. The papyri were discovered on the Museum's Theban expedition of 1921-22 in the tomb of one Meseh. Each of the complete documents was found folded; two were tied with string and sealed with a lump of clay impressed with the same stamp. The papyri are dated to the early Middle Kingdom -- i.e. to about 2000 B.C. (source: Metropolitan Museum website)