The Book of the Dead: Famous Egyptian Papyri

by Evelyn Rossiter (commentator)

In this book all the vignettes from the Papyri of Ani, Hunefer and Anhai are reproduced, for the first time, in full color photographs. These three papyri rank among the most superb specimens of a collection of Egyptian funerary texts which, for the past 130 years, has been known by the title Book of the Dead. The Papyrus of Ani, at slightly more than 78 feet, is the longest papyrus of the Book of the Dead from the Theban period; the Papyrus of Hunefer measures 18 feet 1 inch, and that of Anhai 14 feet 6 inches. In the 17th century BC it became customary for well-to-do Egyptians to leave such collections of invocations and magic spells in their tombs. They were intended as a means of enabling the deceased to triumph over the dangers of the next life, mainly by making it possible for them to turn into any of the powerful creatures which dwelled in the world of the dead and by teaching them certain indispensable passwords which would open for them, one by one, the doors of the Underworld. There can be no doubt that the inhabitants of the Nile valley were convinced that a new life awaited them after death. In the ancient world, of course, they were not alone in this belief, but they had certainly reached a degree of initiation unmatched by any other ancient nation. It is interesting to note that, although they describe the happiness of the Egyptian Elysian Fields, to which the dead were conveyed by Re in his celestial boat, the texts of the Book of the Dead say nothing about what happened in Hell. The weight of the soul-symbolized by the heart, which is the prime moving force of life-was measured according. to criteria about which, unfortunately, we are told nothing. The Book of the Dead, of which we here present three beautiful individual specimens, is a document of great importance, in the light of the renewal of interest in the civilization of ancient Egypt; it also sheds interesting light on our own modern concern with death.

Genres: Egyptology, History

120 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1978

Reviews

[Carolyn]

Was this book produced by an amateur? Miller Graphics. Well, the graphics - the reproductions of three papyri in the collection of the British Museum - are beautiful. But the text is replete with typos, miss-statements, and strange observations, but the worst thing is that the captions - for the text is nearly all captions explicating the image - don't always line up with the picture. A caption for X will be on the previous page! Would have been a marvelous book if only there had been a proof-reader. Still, I want my own copy!

[Jeremy Orbe-Smith]

The text and interpretation is rather dated at this point; what really makes the book worthwhile is the absolutely gorgeous color reproductions of the papyri.