Book of the Dead

For the Tibetan Book of the Dead, see Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Book of Coming Forth by Day in hieroglyphs

The Book of the Dead is a name for an Egyptian text. It is also known as The Book of Coming [or Going] Forth By Day, or as the papyrus of Ani. It contains a number of texts, and spells. These allow the dead person to safely get to the place of the afterlife.

The book of the dead was most commonly written on a papyrus scroll. It was placed in the coffin of the dead person, or their burial chamber. The book of the dead in its most familiar form was first used in the New Kingdom, but many of the spells had their origins in the funerary texts of the Old and Middle Kingdoms.

The name "Book of the Dead" was the invention of the German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius, who published a selection of the texts in 1842.

Missing sections of the book were found in the Queensland Museum in 2012. Historians are hoping that the missing pieces will give them a copy of the complete book.

Book Of The Dead Media

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  Part of the Pyramid Texts, a precursor of the Book of the Dead, inscribed on the tomb of Teti

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  The mystical Spell 17, from the Papyrus of Ani. The vignette at the top illustrates, from left to right, the god Nu as a representation of the primordial ocean; a gateway to the realm of Osiris; the Eye of Horus; the celestial cow Mehet-Weret; and a human head rising from a coffin, guarded by the four Sons of Horus.

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  Egyptian Book of the Dead, painted on a coffin fragment (c. 747–656 BC): Spell 79 (attaching the soul to the body); and Spell 80 (preventing incoherent speech)

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  A vignette in The Papyrus of Ani, from Spell 30B: Spell For Not Letting Ani's Heart Create Opposition Against Him, in the Gods' Domain, which contains a depiction of the ba of the deceased

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  Two 'gate spells'. On the top register, Ani and his wife face the 'seven gates of the House of Osiris'. Below, they encounter ten of the 21 'mysterious portals of the House of Osiris in the Field of Reeds'. All are guarded by unpleasant protectors.

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  Papyrus of Ani: some of the 42 Judges of Maat are visible, seated and in small size.

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  The Weighing of the Heart as depicted in the Papyrus of Hunefer (19th Dynasty, c. 1300 BC)

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  Part of the Book of the Dead of Pinedjem II. The text is hieratic, except for hieroglyphics in the vignette. The use of red pigment, and the joins between papyrus sheets, are also visible.