DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18905#0011
PREFACE.
The present volume contains a series of facsimiles and transcripts of hieroglyphic papyri which
illustrate the development and literary history of the “ Book of the Dead ” during a period of about
sixteen hundred years, and is intended to form a supplement to the previous publications of the I rustees
of the British Museum on the same subject. The “ Egyptian Texts of the Earhest Penod from the Coffin
of Amamu in the British Museum,” the “ Photographs of the Papyrus of Nebseni in the British Museum,”
and the “ Facsimile of the Papyrus of Ani in the British Museum,” published m 1876, 1886, and 1890
respectively, placed in the hands of scholars copies of the finest and most complete texts of the “ Book
of the Dead ” then known. These documents illustrate the history of that great funereal work in the period
which lies between b.c. 2600 and b.c. 1700. The papyri now for the first time published in a complete
form in this volume are fine examples, textually and artistically, of the funereal compositions upon which
kings and nobles, and priests and laity, depended for the means of attaining everlasting hfe, from the
beginnmg of the XVIIIth dynasty, about b.c. 1650, to the end of the Ptolemaic period about b.c. ioo.
I he papyri, five in number, are as follows :—
1. 1 he Papyrus of Hunefer, an overseer of the palace, and superintendent of the royal
cattle, and “ royal scribe ” in the serviee of Seti I., king of Egypt, about b.c. 1370. Though
comparatively short, this papyrus is the most beautiful of all the illustrated papyri of the XlXth
dynasty, and as an artistic work ranks among the best specimens now known. Moreover, it contains
a Hymn to Ra, and a Hymn to Osiris which are found in no other papyrus.
2. The Papyrus of Anhai, a lady of the college of Amen-Ra at Thebes, who hved about
the end of the XXth or in the XXIst dynasty, about b.c. i ioo. This papyrus is of special interest
on account of the unusual character of its vignettes, which demonstrate how, under the priests of
Amen, scenes which belonged properly to the “ Book of Knowing that which is in the Underworld,”
and other works of a like nature, were introduced into the “ Book of the Dead,” and how the god
Amen-Ra, who was originally a local god of 110 national importance, gradually usurped all the
attributes of the old gods of Egypt, and even invaded the domain of Osiris, the judge of the dead.
Worthy of special notice among the vignettes in this papyrus are the Scene of the Creation, and
that in which the mummy of the deceased is seen lying upon the steps, or staircase, beneath the
eight spheres of the city of Khemennu.
A 2
The present volume contains a series of facsimiles and transcripts of hieroglyphic papyri which
illustrate the development and literary history of the “ Book of the Dead ” during a period of about
sixteen hundred years, and is intended to form a supplement to the previous publications of the I rustees
of the British Museum on the same subject. The “ Egyptian Texts of the Earhest Penod from the Coffin
of Amamu in the British Museum,” the “ Photographs of the Papyrus of Nebseni in the British Museum,”
and the “ Facsimile of the Papyrus of Ani in the British Museum,” published m 1876, 1886, and 1890
respectively, placed in the hands of scholars copies of the finest and most complete texts of the “ Book
of the Dead ” then known. These documents illustrate the history of that great funereal work in the period
which lies between b.c. 2600 and b.c. 1700. The papyri now for the first time published in a complete
form in this volume are fine examples, textually and artistically, of the funereal compositions upon which
kings and nobles, and priests and laity, depended for the means of attaining everlasting hfe, from the
beginnmg of the XVIIIth dynasty, about b.c. 1650, to the end of the Ptolemaic period about b.c. ioo.
I he papyri, five in number, are as follows :—
1. 1 he Papyrus of Hunefer, an overseer of the palace, and superintendent of the royal
cattle, and “ royal scribe ” in the serviee of Seti I., king of Egypt, about b.c. 1370. Though
comparatively short, this papyrus is the most beautiful of all the illustrated papyri of the XlXth
dynasty, and as an artistic work ranks among the best specimens now known. Moreover, it contains
a Hymn to Ra, and a Hymn to Osiris which are found in no other papyrus.
2. The Papyrus of Anhai, a lady of the college of Amen-Ra at Thebes, who hved about
the end of the XXth or in the XXIst dynasty, about b.c. i ioo. This papyrus is of special interest
on account of the unusual character of its vignettes, which demonstrate how, under the priests of
Amen, scenes which belonged properly to the “ Book of Knowing that which is in the Underworld,”
and other works of a like nature, were introduced into the “ Book of the Dead,” and how the god
Amen-Ra, who was originally a local god of 110 national importance, gradually usurped all the
attributes of the old gods of Egypt, and even invaded the domain of Osiris, the judge of the dead.
Worthy of special notice among the vignettes in this papyrus are the Scene of the Creation, and
that in which the mummy of the deceased is seen lying upon the steps, or staircase, beneath the
eight spheres of the city of Khemennu.
A 2