The earliest text we own is an 18th Dynasty papyrus that was made sometime around 1450–1380 B.C., during the height of Egypt’s New Kingdom. Getty’s collection spans a wide timeframe, which provides an exciting opportunity to examine how the Book of the Dead evolved for more than 1,000 years, and how it was used by the Egyptians. Google Arts & Culture Digital Feature: The Getty Book of the Dead: Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts in the J. Vignettes often illustrated key points in the text, as in the example from Spell 125 illustrated above, in which the deceased has his heart weighed in the presence of Osiris. By the New Kingdom, around 1550–1069 B.C., scribes started writing Book of the Dead spells on papyrus scrolls. The group that we call the Book of the Dead developed from spells that were first inscribed on scarabs and coffins at the end of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom period, around 1650 B.C. Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program Fragmentary Papyrus with Spells from the Book of the Dead, 304–30 BC, Egyptian. The spells on this papyrus are written in hieroglyphs. Texts could be written either in hieroglyphic Egyptian, or a cursive form of the script called hieratic. Along with Getty’s ongoing provenance research, Scalf is studying the texts and preparing translations and analysis in order to place them within the broader context of the long history of the Book of the Dead.īook of the Dead spells were meant to be spoken aloud, and placing them on items in the tomb allowed the mummy to recite them from within his coffin. Getty’s Book of the Dead manuscripts include seven papyri and twelve linen mummy wrappings that are now undergoing new scholarship spearheaded by Foy Scalf, an Egyptologist who is the head of research archives at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Fragmentary Papyrus with Spells and Vignettes from the Book of the Dead (detail), 304–30 B.C., Egyptian. If his heart equals the weight of the feather, he is allowed to pass into the next world.

This vignette detail shows an episode from Book of the Dead Spell 125, in which the deceased appears before Osiris and a tribunal of gods to have his heart weighed against the feather of Maat, symbolizing justice and truth.

Play book of the dead free