THE EGYPTIAN PERIOD
date as the pyramid texts, is a book of annals and it too has significant indications of book collections long before that date. It indeed incorporates in itself earlier works, if it is not itself, in effect, a collection of annual records. The curious ivory or ebony tablets found in the tombs of the first dynasty and pierced for stringing, or for use as labels, have not been deciphered, but the pictures seem very like the brief statements of the annals and some of the tablets have the year sign. This suggests annual records and sources for the Palermo stone. If these are records of the events of a given year and were strung together, we have not only the evidence of systematically kept records back to 3400 B.C. (which we already have through the Palermo stone itself) but have actual specimens of these "books" and their keeping. Moreover, on the Palermo stone we already have mention of Seshait, afterwards the goddess of
[59]
