Papyrus Anastasi I (officially designated papyrus British Museum 10247) is an ancient Egyptian papyrus containing a satirical text used for the training of scribes during the Ramesside Period (i.e. Nineteenth and Twentieth dynasties). One scribe, an army scribe, Hori, writes to his fellow scribe, Amenemope, in such a way as to ridicule the irresponsible and second-rate nature of Amenemope's work. The papyrus was originally purchased from Giovanni Anastasi in 1839.

The letter gives examples of what a scribe was supposed to be able to do: calculating the number of rations which have to be doled out to a certain number of soldiers digging a lake, or the quantity of bricks needed to erect a ramp of given dimensions, assessing the number of men needed to move an obelisk or erect a statue, and organizing the supply of provisions for an army. In a long section Hori discusses the geography of the Mediterranean coast as far north as the Lebanon and the troubles which might beset a traveler there.

This papyrus is important to historians and Bible scholars above all for the information it supplies about towns in Syria and Canaan during the New Kingdom. There is a long list of towns which run along the northern border of the djadi or watershed of the Jordan in Canaan, which bound Lebanon along the Litani River and upper retnu and Syria along the Orontes River. The border lands of Egypt's province of Caanan with Kadesh are defined on page XIX:

Come let me tell thee of other towns, which are above(??) them. Thou hast not gone to the land of Kadesh, Tekhes, Kurmeren, Temenet, Deper, Idi, Herenem. Thou hast not beheld Kirjath-anab and Beth-Sepher. Thou dost not know Ideren, nor yet Djedpet. Thou dost not know the name of Kheneredj which is in the land of Upe, a bull upon its boundary, the scene of the battles of every warrior. Pray teach me concerning the appearance(?) of Kin; acquaint me with Rehob; explain Beth-sha-el and Tereqel. The stream of Jordan, how is it crossed? Cause me to know the way of crossing over to Megiddo which is above it(??).

— Papyrus Anastasi I, p. XIX

Hori goes on to show that Amenemope is not skilled in the role of a maher. The word maher is found frequently in this papyrus, but nowhere else (a hapax legomenon). Gardiner suggests it must be the technical name of the Egyptian emissary in Syria.

Hori then relates an imagined anecdote where Amenemope experiences an adventure of a maher. It contains a lot of detail reflecting discreditably on his name and comparing him to Qedjerdi, the chief of Isser: "Thy name becomes like (that of) Qedjerdi, the chief of Isser, when the hyena found him in the balsam-tree."

The composition of the satirical interchange between the scribes comes across as quite well written especially where Hori describes Amenemope as incompetent toward the end, giving as an example his poor management of not just his chariot but his character.