Papyrus from the Book of the Dead of Any

From Thebes, Egypt
19th Dynasty, around 1250 BC

Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead is a long and complicated spell, with an equally long history. It is essentially a statement of religious doctrines relating to the sun-god Re. It includes statements with explanatory glosses on the meaning of the text, introduced in the original by text in red, saying, for example 'what does it mean?' or 'in other words'. This suggests that it was at some point felt necessary to explain an obscure text, though to us many of the glosses seem more complex than the basic text.

The text is accompanied by a range of vignettes (illustrations). On the left Any and his wife Tutu are shown at left playing the senet board game (which can be a metaphor for a man travelling into the next world, like a playing piece on the board), while in front of the booth their ba spirits are shown as human-headed birds, perched on top of their tomb. The two lions are those of the horizon over whose backs the sun rises daily, while the bird to the right is the benu, the phoenix-like bird and soul of the sun-god Re. At the right Any's mummy lies under a canopy, attended on by two birds identified as Isis and Nephthys.

R.O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of t, (revised ed. C. A. R. Andrews) (London, The British Museum Press, 1985)

R.B. Parkinson and S. Quirke, Papyrus, (Egyptian Bookshelf) (London, The British Museum Press, 1995)

S. Quirke and A.J. Spencer, The British Museum book of anc (London, The British Museum Press, 1992)