2547 BC: (The first stone tablet is somewhat roughly hewn, as if by a hand inexperienced with working using the tools available.)
My name is Ptahhotep, and I was an assistant architect overseeing construction of the pyramids before my mortal body was crushed by a falling piece of marble casing. The force of the impact bound my soul to the stone, and I have been trapped inside it ever since. It is somewhat ironic that in my life as a man, I was an architect named after the god of architects and I was killed by badly planned architecture. The frantic tumble down the pyramid that ended in my death also damaged the marble enough that it is no longer to be used as casing but will be cut down and repurposed for some other building project. I wonder where my prison and I will end up. To stave off the boredom of being trapped and immobile in this stone prison, I plan to write of my experiences in any interesting locations my prison happens to end up in over the years.
165 BC:
I’ve finally made it! Years and years of inescapable boredom listening to priests drone on and on as I was shuffled around various temples in the city as they were built and destroyed and I’ve finally made it somewhere more interesting. Alexandria! Even better than Alexandria, the famous library of Alexandria! There were many occasions during the time my prison and I spent in the temples of Memphis when I would hear priests and scholars speak of their desire to study there, and I longed for the opportunity to do so myself. Despite being trapped in a stone, I will still be able to observe all the comings and goings inside this new section of the library. The library is so large that the branch I ended up in is not a part of the library itself, but the Temple of Serapis. This new location is so much better than all of the other temples my prison has resided in. I even find myself somewhat excited about my future for the first time since I became trapped here so many years ago. I finally have a more consistent source of entertainment beyond those zealots of the temples.
48 BC: (You sense a few ghostly tears have seeped into the stone of this tablet.)
At first, I was unappreciative of the location of my prison, but no longer. The main library of Alexandria was burned to the ground. Listening in on the conversations of scholars who pass through my hall, I have been able to glean some information about the circumstances under which such a tragedy occurred. There was infighting among the conquerors of Egypt, the Romans. As a simple architect and with such limited information about the world from the confines of my prison, I did not fully understand all of the intrigue involved, but apparently, Alexandria was set alight during the course of their civil war. A man named Pompey fled here after suffering a defeat at the hands of a man named Caesar, but Pompey was killed by our co-regent Ptolomy VIII and when Caesar arrived, he pretended to be outraged by Pompey’s death and declared martial law. I find it all very confusing. What is important is that when I first arrived, I was disappointed that my prison was not to be used in the main library, but now, I feel lucky.