<P> Other documents useful for investigating Egyptian history are ancient lists of kings found in terse chronicles, such as the Fifth dynasty Palermo stone . These documents legitimated the contemporary pharaoh's claim to sovereignty . Throughout ancient Egyptian history, royal decrees recounted the deeds of ruling pharaohs . For example, the Nubian pharaoh Piye (r . 752--721 BC), founder of the Twenty - fifth dynasty, had a stela erected and written in classical Middle Egyptian that describes with unusual nuances and vivid imagery his successful military campaigns . </P> <P> An Egyptian historian, known by his Greek name as Manetho (c. 3rd century BC), was the first to compile a comprehensive history of Egypt . Manetho was active during the reign of Ptolemy II (r . 283--246 BC) and used The Histories by the Greek Herodotus (c. 484 BC--c. 425 BC) as his main source of inspiration for a history of Egypt written in Greek . However, the primary sources for Manetho's work were the king list chronicles of previous Egyptian dynasties . </P> <P> Fischer - Elfert distinguishes ancient Egyptian graffiti writing as a literary genre . During the New Kingdom, scribes who traveled to ancient sites often left graffiti messages on the walls of sacred mortuary temples and pyramids, usually in commemoration of these structures . Modern scholars do not consider these scribes to have been mere tourists, but pilgrims visiting sacred sites where the extinct cult centers could be used for communicating with the gods . There is evidence from an educational ostracon found in the tomb of Senenmut (TT71) that formulaic graffiti writing was practiced in scribal schools . In one graffiti message, left at the mortuary temple of Thutmose III at Deir el - Bahri, a modified saying from The Maxims of Ptahhotep is incorporated into a prayer written on the temple wall . Scribes usually wrote their graffiti in separate clusters to distinguish their graffiti from others' . This led to competition among scribes, who would sometimes denigrate the quality of graffiti inscribed by others, even ancestors from the scribal profession . </P> <P> After the Copts converted to Christianity in the first centuries AD, their Coptic Christian literature became separated from the pharaonic and Hellenistic literary traditions . Nevertheless, scholars speculate that ancient Egyptian literature, perhaps in oral form, influenced Greek and Arabic literature . Parallels are drawn between the Egyptian soldiers sneaking into Jaffa hidden in baskets to capture the city in the story Taking of Joppa and the Mycenaean Greeks sneaking into Troy inside the Trojan Horse . The Taking of Joppa has also been compared to the Arabic story of Ali Baba in One Thousand and One Nights . It has been conjectured that Sinbad the Sailor may have been inspired by the pharaonic Tale of the shipwrecked sailor . Some Egyptian literature was commented on by scholars of the ancient world . For example, the Jewish Roman historian Josephus (37--c. 100 AD) quoted and provided commentary on Manetho's historical texts . </P>

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