Budge, Ernest A. Wallis [Editor]: The book of the dead: facsimiles of the papyri of Hunefer, Anhai, Kerāsher and Netchemet ; with supplementary text from the papyrus of Nu with transcripts, etc. (London, 1899)

THE SON OF

TIIE PAPYRUS OF NU,

AMENHETEP AND SENSENEB.

I he Papyrus of Nu, occ|j)^j, was found at Kurna,
Thebes, and was purchased by the Trustees of
the British Museum in 1891. It measures
65 feet 3! in. by 1 foot O in. ; it is mounted
in thirty sheets, and bears the number 10,477.
The material is composed of three layers of
papyrus, which is somewhat darker in colour
than the ordinary Theban papyri. A portion
of the papyrus is blank at the beginning, and in
places it is worm-eaten ; it has, moreover, suffered
through bcing wedged in too tightly between the
mummy ancl the sicle of the coffin in which it was
found.

The papyrus begins with a coloured scene
in which the deceasecl is standing in adoration
before the god Osiris, who is seated within a
shrine. It has none of the introductory hymns,
and 110 large painted Judgment Scene, such as
are found in the illustrated papyri of the latter
part of the XVIIIth dynasty ; ancl it therefore
seems that the earliest copies of the Theban
Recension of the Book of the Dead lackecl both
the hymns ancl the Judgment Scene. The
Papyrus of Nu contains one hunclred and thirty-
one Chapters of the Book of the Deacl ; this
number, however, includes two versions of
Chapters XXX., LXIV., CXXXVI., and
CLI11. P ifteen of the Chapters are accompanied
by vignettes. d he vignettes appear to be the work
of an artist, and not of the writer of the text of the
papyrus ; but, although ofinterest archaeologically,
they are not of any great importance artistically.
d he titles of the chapters, rubrics, catchwords, etc.,
are m red, and the borcler at the top and bottom

of the text consists of two thin, black lines ; the
text is in black throughout, ancl lt seems to be the
work of one man, probably of Nu himself. It is
most carefully written, ancl is no mere copy hastily
made by a scribe for sale, but a clocument which
bears almost in every line the impress of care
and knowledge. Tlere and there the writer has
omittecl a line by accident, ancl two copies of the
CXXXIInd Chapter are given, apparently by
inadvertence (see sheets 11 ancl 12). But the
Papyrus of Nu is, textually, the most correct and
the most carefully written of all the copies of the
Theban Recension of the Book ot the Deacl now
known, and also the oldest of the illustrated papyri
of the XVIIIth dynasty.

We can, fortunately, fix with tolerable
certamty lts place in the series of Theban
papyri, for Nu is deScribed as :—

vier


per en

mer

set'aut

N11

viad - xerH

Overseer

of the house of the

overseer

of the seal,

Nu,

triumphant,

-<2>-

^

MVWA

1

/WVA*'

n

cAu

dri


en mer

per

en

iner

set'aut

begotten

of the overseer of the house

of the

overseer

of the seal,

f) r-ft-,

1 AAAAAA Cl

—

i

AAAAAA

Oi

C7Z1

1

A men-hetep

viaa-yem

vies

en

nebt

per

Amen-hetep,

triumphant,

born

of the

lady

of the house,

Sen - seneb, maat-yeru.

Sen - seneb, triumphant.

From this we learn that Nu was the steward
of the great official who was the “ keeper of the