Book Kemit

The emergence of written teaching aids in ancient Egypt was facilitated by unfavorable historical circumstances - disasters of the transition period (mid XXIII century - mid XXI century BC), during which the "piece" method of preparing literate scribes was disrupted.

In a country reborn after the riots, schools and textbooks were needed. Researchers believe that at the end of the XI - the beginning of the XII dynasties, the first textbook was compiled - the book "Kemit".

Translated, “Kemit” means “Finished”, “Completed”, “ Compendium ”, “ Compilation ” or simply “Sum”, “Total”.

At present, not all of the text of the book of Kemit is known, but only about half of it, which has survived to our time in passages on numerous ostracons and written boards of the New Kingdom. This part was restored on the basis of 70–80 fragments by one of the best experts in ancient Egyptian literature, J. Pozner.

Currently, it is known that Kemit was a collection of expressions, formulas and various terms, necessary for the scribe to compile documents, distributed across three sections.

The first section - samples of polite phrases to start writing. Almost all of them are known from real messages and contain well-wishes of health, long life, happy old age and all the best from the gods. Some scholars (Stefan Querk) believe that the first part of the book “Kemit” could be a lecture and an instruction to the future scribe.

The second part of the book is a small parable, the story of a certain Au who returned home after three years of absence. The text does not report on the reason for his long stay in the royal residence, but praises his life at the court of the king. The text describes Au's daily amusements for catching birds and fish, while his wife yearns for him. Researchers believe that this story about life at the royal court was used as an instructive school exercise. On the question of why this parable was placed in the middle of the book of Kemit, the researchers do not have a single opinion.

The third part of the book Kemit is a model of phrases from tomb autobiographies and teachings, glorifying the profession of a scribe.

It is known that after the book by Kemit, schoolchildren began copying more complex texts - for example, texts from a collection of similar “exercises” on papyrus from the Berlin Museum, published in 1925 by the famous Berlin Egyptologist Adolf Erman and designated as “school manuscripts”. It is known that there are textbooks in mathematics, medicine, astronomy, and other sciences that were not included in the set of primary school subjects. They all differed in a practical approach and were not burdened by theoretical fabrications.

• Education in Ancient Egypt
• Scribes of Ancient Egypt
• Kheti's teachings
• Kagemni teachings
• Vizier's instruction

• Tomashevich O.V. Textbook: first experiments (on ancient Egyptian material) // “The Beginning of the Doctrine of Learning”: the role of the book for elementary education in the history of education and culture: Sat. Art. under the editorship of V.G. Bezrogova, T.S. Markarova (Proceedings of the seminar "Culture of childhood: norms, values, practices", issue 16). - M .: Publishing house "Canon +", 2014. - S. 11. - 466 p. ISBN 978-5-88373-433-4
• Demidchik A. E. On the time of the creation of the ancient Egyptian textbook “Kemit” // Bulletin of the NSU . Series: History, Philology. - 2008. - T. 7 , no. 4: Oriental studies. .