Book of the Dead facts for kids

The Book of the Dead is a name for an Egyptian text. It is also known as The Book of Coming [or Going] Forth By Day, or as the papyrus of Ani. It contains a number of texts, and spells. These allow the dead person to safely get to the place of the afterlife.

The book of the dead was most commonly written on a papyrus scroll. It was placed in the coffin of the dead person, or their burial chamber. The book of the dead in its most familiar form was first used in the New Kingdom, but many of the spells had their origins in the funerary texts of the Old and Middle Kingdoms.

The name "Book of the Dead" was the invention of the German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius, who published a selection of the texts in 1842.

Missing sections of the book were found in the Queensland Museum in 2012. Historians are hoping that the missing pieces will give them a copy of the complete book.

Images for kids

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  This detail scene, from the Papyrus of Hunefer (c. 1275 BCE), shows the scribe Hunefer's heart being weighed on the scale of Maat against the feather of truth, by the jackal-headed Anubis. The ibis-headed Thoth, scribe of the gods, records the result. If his heart equals exactly the weight of the feather, Hunefer is allowed to pass into the afterlife. If not, he is eaten by the waiting chimeric devouring creature Ammit composed of the deadly crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus. Vignettes such as these were a common illustration in Egyptian books of the dead.

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  Part of the Pyramid Texts, a precursor of the Book of the Dead, inscribed on the tomb of Teti

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  The mystical Spell 17, from the Papyrus of Ani. The vignette at the top illustrates, from left to right, the god Heh as a representation of the Sea; a gateway to the realm of Osiris; the Eye of Horus; the celestial cow Mehet-Weret; and a human head rising from a coffin, guarded by the four Sons of Horus.

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  Egyptian Book of the Dead, painted on a coffin fragment (c. 747–656 BCE): Spell 79 (attaching the soul to the body); and Spell 80 (preventing incoherent speech)

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  A vignette in The Papyrus of Ani, from Spell 30B: Spell For Not Letting Ani's Heart Create Opposition Against Him, in the Gods' Domain, which contains a depiction of the ba of the deceased

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  Two 'gate spells'. On the top register, Ani and his wife face the 'seven gates of the House of Osiris'. Below, they encounter ten of the 21 'mysterious portals of the House of Osiris in the Field of Reeds'. All are guarded by unpleasant protectors.

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  The Weighing of the Heart ritual, shown in the Book of the Dead of Sesostris

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  Part of the Book of the Dead of Pinedjem II. The text is hieratic, except for hieroglyphics in the vignette. The use of red pigment, and the joins between papyrus sheets, are also visible.

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  A close-up of the Papyrus of Ani, showing the cursive hieroglyphs of the text

See also

In Spanish: Libro de los muertos para niños