cladking Wrote:
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> PT but the way I'm figuring is that most of what's
> known comes from this source or from something
> wholly or mostly derived from it. It seems like
> an unvarnished look at their beliefs though I'm
> sure they were deeper than merely what appeared
> here.

No, most of what's known comes from a lot of inscriptions in temples and tombs and on monuments. Very little of what's known comes from the PTs. If you want to learn more about how the people thought, pick a pharaoh and read up on the scarabs and other artifacts and the texts from his lifetime and his descendant's lifetimes. The PTs are too scattered in time to give a good feeling for much of anything... it's like trying to understand Europe by reading a few prayers from different countries of Europe and from time periods from 500 BC to 2000 AD.

They're prayers (short ones) and just as beliefs changed from the time of the Romans to modern times, Egyptian beliefs and society changed dramatically over the timeframe of the PTs.

If they all came from a single source; a single temple wall and chamber and sarcophagus, we could learn a lot from the collection. But they're sentences from many different sources.

> There's really very little stuff that dates to the
> pyramids and older.

Google for artifacts and temples and so forth from the "Old Kingdom" of Egypt. I think the amount of material will surprise you.