“This is the Taste of Death”

Can a folktale from the Middle Bronze Age provide us with information about the remote past that has eluded even extensive archaeological expeditions?

The answer is yes. The Tale of Sinuhe,¹ composed during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, may help resolve scholarly debates about social conditions in Canaan-Syria (also known as the Levant) in the early second millennium B.C.

Sinuhe’s story takes place during the reigns of the first two pharaohs of Egypt’s 12th Dynasty: Amenemhet I (1991–1962 B.C.) and Senuseret I (1971–1928 B.C.). It is told in the first person by Sinuhe himself, a high official in Amenemhet’s court who leaves Egypt, travels to Canaan, raises a family and finally returns to Egypt in order to live out his days among his own people and receive a proper burial.