The official name of this document is Leiden Papyrus #344, after the Dutch museum where it currently resides. The style of writing suggests that it was a XIX dynasty composition, but it is probably a copy of one written much earlier. The first Egyptologist to make a detailed examination of it was Sir Alan Gardiner, in 1909. He believed it to be a XII dynasty work, recalling the chaos of the First Intermediate Period.
Most scholars have agreed with Gardiner, though over the years some (Kurt Sethe, Immanuel Velikovsky, and Jan Van Seters, to name a few) have argued that a Second Intermediate Period date is more likely. If Gardiner was correct, this is the only record we have describing the turbulent years between the Old and the Middle Kingdom.
Unfortunately for us, the papyrus is in poor condition. Both the beginning and end are missing, and the body of the text has many lacunae (gaps) in it. What we can figure out is that a wise man named Ipuwer is addressing the pharaoh, whose name was probably given in the now-missing head of the document. He describes in great detail how the Two Lands have fallen into chaos,
blames it on the failure of the king to keep order, and urges him to “destroy the enemies of the august Residence” and perform the required religious rites so that the gods will support Egypt’s restoration. On the other hand, this writing may have been an act of political propaganda, contrasting the good times of the reigning pharaoh with how bad things were in the previous dynasty.
