© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Fragment from a Book of the Dead

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodNew Kingdom, Late Dynasty 18

Date1390-1292 BCE

MediumPapyrus, pigment

Credit LineCharlotte Lichirie Collection of Egyptian Art by exchange

Object number2004.022.001.015

Label TextFrom very early in Egyptian history, instructions and incantations were composed to help the deceased on the day of judgment and journey through the Underworld. By the New Kingdom, these spells were collected together and written on papyrus scrolls now known as the Book of the Dead. The ancient Egyptian name for this was the Book of Going Forth by Day and it consisted of as many as 189 chapters, although frequently it was abridged to far fewer. These books were sometimes beautifully illustrated with scenes relating to the spells. Many were also used in the decoration of the coffins of the Twenty-first Dynasty and some spells were written on other tomb objects, such as the shabti spell or the heart scarab spell.
Published ReferencesMarcus Muller-Roth and Felicitas Weber, "Pretty Good Privacy," in Herausgehen am Tage: gesammelte Schriften zum altagyptischen Totenbuch, eds Rita Lucarelli, et al. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2012), 120f., farbtafeln IV-VA.

ProvenancePurchased by MCCM from David L. Petrovsky, Ltd., Hudson, New York.

Status

Not on view

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