The 'Book of the Dead' guided ancient Egyptians in the underworld.
The"Book of the Dead" is a modern-day name given to a series of ancient Egyptian texts that the Egyptians believed would help the dead navigate the underworld, as well as serving other purposes. Copies of these texts were sometimes buried with the dead.
Book of the Dead's spellsThe"Book of the Dead" includes individual chapters, or spells."The ancient Egyptians used the word rꜢ to designate each composition. The word rꜢ is generally translated as 'spell' or 'utterance.' It is written with the hieroglyph of a human mouth because the term was related to speech," Foy Scalf, the head of research archives at the University of Chicago who holds a doctorate in Egyptology, told Live Science in an email.
These texts"prepared the Egyptians for life after death and [had] the power to conjure up all the parts of one's body for the spiritual journey," wrote Barry Kemp, professor emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Cambridge, in his book"How to Read the Egyptian Book of the Dead " ."The Book of the Dead, by means of its spells, conferred on the owner the power to navigate successfully — for eternity — through [the underworld's] various realms" Kemp wrote.
The spells were often illustrated."Pictures [were] of great importance in the New Kingdom collection of funerary texts now called the Egyptian Book of the Dead," wrote Geraldine Pinch, an Egyptologist, in her book"Egyptian Myth: A Very Short Introduction " ."Many owners of Books of the Dead would have been unable to read the hieroglyphic texts, but they could understand the complex vignettes that summarized the contents of the spells" Pinch wrote.
Additionally, the spells in the"Book of the Dead" could be used when a person was still alive."Most of the spells from the 'Book of the Dead' are not designed to 'navigate' the underworld," Scalf said."Most of the spells are about transformation and transcendent experience.
"The longest of the papyrus manuscripts is over thirty meters [98 feet] in length; it would have been a very difficult manuscript to navigate when reading. These manuscripts [found in tombs] were prestige copies, largely meant for deposition in the grave," Scalf said.
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