Ipuwer Papyrus

The Ipuwer Papyrus, also known as the Admonitions of Ipuwer, is an ancient Egyptian text, now held in Leiden, that survives as a later copy of an earlier composition. It takes the form of a lament in which a figure named Ipuwer describes a society thrown into chaos, with social order overturned, the poor and the wealthy exchanging places, and the land afflicted by disorder. Egyptologists generally read it as a work of reflective or admonitory literature about societal breakdown rather than a strict historical chronicle, though it has drawn wide popular attention for the parallels some observers have drawn to other ancient Near Eastern narratives of catastrophe.