Book of the Dead

Egyptian Mythology

The Book of the Dead is a loose collection of ancient Egyptian funerary texts, generally written on papyrus from around 1550 BC to around 50 BC. Its magic spells were intended to help a deceased person travel through the Duat, or underworld, into the afterlife. There was no single canonical version, and surviving papyri contain differing selections of texts, often with illustrations of the deceased's afterlife journey.

Period of use: Around 1550 BC to around 50 BC
Purpose: To assist the dead through the underworld and into the afterlife
Original Egyptian title: Spells of Coming Forth by Day

Sources and credits

Article: Book of the Dead (English Wikipedia)
Wikidata: Q174361
Text: Card text is adapted from the English Wikipedia article by an automated summary. Wikipedia content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for its contributors. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Article history and contributors
Illustration: By Hunefer. Public domain · File page on Wikimedia Commons
Hunefer, http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/p/page_from_the_book_of_the_dead.aspx, https://www.webcitation.org/63ZdUemZU
Modifications: Resized and converted to WebP
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