Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead (Ancient Egyptian: 𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤, r(ꜣ)w n(y)w prt m hrw(w)) is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BC) to around 50 BC.[1] The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated r(ꜣ)w n(y)w prt m hrw(w),[2] is translated as Book of Coming Forth by Day.[3] "Book" is the closest term to describe the loose collection of texts[4] consisting of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife and written by many priests over a period of about 1,000 years. In 1842, the Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius introduced for these texts the German name Todtenbuch (modern spelling Totenbuch), translated to English as 'Book of the Dead'.
For other uses, see Book of the Dead (disambiguation).
The Book of the Dead, which was placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased, was part of a tradition of funerary texts which includes the earlier Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, which were painted onto objects, not written on papyrus. Some of the spells included in the book were drawn from these older works and date to the 3rd millennium BC. Other spells were composed later in Egyptian history, dating to the Third Intermediate Period (11th to 7th centuries BC). A number of the spells which make up the Book continued to be separately inscribed on tomb walls and sarcophagi, as the spells from which they originated always had been.
There was no single or canonical Book of the Dead. The surviving papyri contain a varying selection of religious and magical texts and vary considerably in their illustration. Some people seem to have commissioned their own copies of the Book of the Dead, perhaps choosing the spells they thought most vital in their own progression to the afterlife. The Book of the Dead was most commonly written in hieroglyphic or hieratic script on a papyrus scroll, and often illustrated with vignettes depicting the deceased and their journey into the afterlife.
The finest extant example of the Egyptian in antiquity is the Papyrus of Ani. Ani was an Egyptian scribe. It was discovered in Luxor in 1888 by Egyptians trading in illegal antiquities. It was acquired by E. A. Wallis Budge, as described in his autobiography By Nile and Tigris in 1888 and was taken to the British Museum, where it remains.
British Museum
Papyrus of Ani
Papyrus of , British Museum
Hunefer
Papyrus of , or "Campbell Papyrus", British Museum
Pinedjem II
Book of the Dead (Art Institute of Chicago)
(Books of the Dead of TaSheritMin, Nefer-ir-nebu, and Amenhotep), fragments, many destroyed in modern times
Joseph Smith Papyri
Chapters 1–16: The deceased enters the tomb and descends to the underworld, and the body regains its powers of movement and speech.
Chapters 17–63: Explanation of the mythic origin of the gods and places. The deceased is made to live again so that he may arise, reborn, with the morning sun.
Chapters 64–129: The deceased travels across the sky in the as one of the blessed dead. In the evening, the deceased travels to the underworld to appear before Osiris.
sun barque
Chapters 130–189: Having been vindicated, the deceased assumes power in the universe as one of the gods. This section also includes assorted chapters on protective amulets, provision of food, and important places.
[26]
c. 3150 BC – First preserved hieroglyphs, on small labels in the tomb of a king buried (in tomb U-j) at
Abydos
c. 3000 BC – The beginning of the numbered dynasties of kings of ancient Egypt
c. 2345 BC – First royal pyramid, of King Unas, to contain the Pyramid Texts, carved precursors to the funerary literature from which the Book of the Dead ultimately developed
c. 2100 BC – First Coffin Texts, developed from the Pyramid Texts and for a time painted on the coffins of commoners. Many spells of the Book of the Dead are closely derived from them
c. 1600 BC – Earliest spells of the Book of the Dead, on the coffin of Queen , an ancestor of kings from the New Kingdom
Menthuhotep
c. 1550 BC – From this time onward to the beginning of the New Kingdom, papyrus copies of the Book of the Dead are used instead of inscribing spells on the walls of the tombs
c. 600 BC – Approximately when the order of the spells became standard
42–553 AD – Christianity spreads to Egypt, gradually replacing the native religion as successive emperors alternately tolerate or suppress them, culminating in the last temple at (also site of the last known religious inscription in demotic, dating from 452) being closed by order of Emperor Justinian in 533
Philae
2nd century AD – Possibly the last copies of the Book of the Dead were produced, but it is a poorly documented era of history
1798 AD – Napoleon's invasion of Egypt encourages European interests in ancient Egypt; 1799, was handed a copy of the Book of the Dead
Vivant Denon
1805 AD – Jean-Marcel Cadet makes the first publication, on 18 plates, of a Book of the Dead, Copie figurée d'un rouleau de papyrus trouvé à Thèbes, dans un tombeau des rois
[73]
1822 AD – announces the key to the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, subsequently developed in his later publications, the most extensive after his death in 1832
Jean-François Champollion
1842 AD – Lepsius publishes the first major study of the Book of the Dead, begins the numbering of the spells or chapters, and brings the name "Book of the Dead" into general circulation
[74]
Garuda Purana
(Tibetan book of the dead)
Bardo Thodol
List of papyri from ancient Egypt
Ghosts in ancient Egyptian culture
Medjed
(H. P. Lovecraft's book of the dead)
Necronomicon
Qenna
Shūjin e no Pert-em-Hru
Middle Egyptian – An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, first edition, Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-521-77483-7
Allen, James P.
Faulkner, Raymond O (translator); von Dassow, Eva (editor), The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Book of Going forth by Day. The First Authentic Presentation of the Complete Papyrus of Ani. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1994.
; Lorton, D (translator), The Ancient Egyptian books of the Afterlife. Cornell University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8014-8515-0
Hornung, Erik
Müller-Roth, Marcus, "The Book of the Dead Project: Past, present and future." British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan 15 (2010): 189–200.
Taylor, John H. (Editor), Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead: Journey through the afterlife. British Museum Press, London, 2010. 978-0-7141-1993-9
ISBN
Allen, Thomas George, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: Documents in the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1960.
Allen, Thomas George, The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day. Ideas of the Ancient Egyptians Concerning the Hereafter as Expressed in Their Own Terms, SAOC vol. 37; University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1974.
(2005) [2001]. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt. Translated by David Lorton. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-4241-9
Assmann, Jan
D'Auria, S (et al.) Mummies and Magic: the Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1989. 0-87846-307-0
ISBN
; Andrews, Carol (editor), The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. University of Texas Press, Austin, 1972.
Faulkner, Raymond O
Lapp, G, The Papyrus of Nu (Catalogue of Books of the Dead in the British Museum). British Museum Press, London, 1997.
Studies on the Illustrated Theban Funerary Papyri of the 11th and 10th Centuries B.C.. OBO vol. 86; Universitätsverlag, Freiburg, 1989.
Niwinski, Andrzej
Complete digital archive of all witnesses for the Book of the Dead (with descriptions of the (c. 3000) objects and (c. 20,000) images)
Das altägyptische Totenbuch - ein digitales Textzeugenarchiv
with several images and reproductions of Egyptian papyri
Online Readable Text
with many scenes and their formula English translations, from the copy now in the British Museum