Book of the Dead: Ancient Egyptian Spells for the Afterlife

The Book of the Dead is the modern name for a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary spells that people placed in their tombs from around 1550 BC. Written mostly on papyrus rolls and illustrated with vivid scenes, the spells were meant to guide the dead through the dangers of the underworld to eternal life. Its best-known scene, the weighing of the heart, has become one of the most famous images of ancient Egypt.

Name and origins

The Egyptians called the collection the “Spells for Coming Forth by Day”, meaning the power of the dead to leave the tomb and move freely in the afterlife. The modern title comes from the German “Todtenbuch”, used by the Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius when he published a long Ptolemaic-period copy in Turin in 1842. Lepsius divided that papyrus into 165 numbered spells, and his numbering is still the basis of the system used today, which now runs to about 192 spells.

The Book of the Dead was never a single scripture like a holy book. Each roll was a selection of spells, put together for an individual and varying in length, order and illustration.

From pyramids to papyrus

Egyptian funerary writing developed over more than a thousand years. The earliest were the Pyramid Texts, carved inside the burial chambers of kings from around 2350 BC. In the Middle Kingdom, the Coffin Texts, painted on the coffins of officials and their families, made similar protection available beyond the royal family.

The Book of the Dead grew out of these traditions. Its first examples appear at the end of the Second Intermediate Period, written on coffins and shrouds at Thebes, such as the coffin of Queen Mentuhotep of the Seventeenth Dynasty. From the start of the New Kingdom around 1550 BC, the spells were increasingly written on papyrus rolls placed in the coffin or tomb.

What the spells do

The spells covered every stage of the journey after death. Some protected the body, alongside the practices of mummification, and helped the dead regain the ability to breathe, eat and speak. Others gave power over snakes, crocodiles and other dangerous creatures, or supplied the passwords needed to pass the gates of the underworld guarded by demons.

Some spells allowed the dead person to take different forms, such as a falcon, a lotus or a heron. Spell 6, often written on small figurines called shabtis, called on those figures to do agricultural work in the afterlife on the owner’s behalf. Spell 110 described the Field of Reeds, an ideal version of the Egyptian countryside where the blessed dead would farm and live in plenty.

The weighing of the heart

The most important text is Spell 125, which describes the judgement of the dead in the Hall of the Two Truths. The dead person addresses a court of 42 divine judges, declaring before each one a sin they had not committed, such as theft, murder or lying. Egyptologists call this the “Negative Confession”.

In the illustrations, the jackal-headed god Anubis weighs the heart of the deceased on a balance against the feather of Maat, the goddess of truth, justice and order. The ibis-headed god Thoth records the result. A monster called Ammit, part crocodile, part lion and part hippopotamus, waits to swallow the heart of anyone who fails. Those who pass are declared “true of voice” and presented to Osiris, king of the dead.

Because the heart was believed to hold a person’s memory and character, Spell 30B asks it not to testify against its owner. This spell was often carved on heart scarabs, stone amulets placed over the chest of the mummy.

Making and owning a copy

Book of the Dead rolls were produced in workshops by scribes and artists. Many were made in advance with blank spaces in which the buyer’s name could later be inserted, while the finest were commissioned for particular people. Rolls could be several metres long; the Greenfield Papyrus in the British Museum is about 37 metres.

A good copy was costly, so most owners were members of the elite: royalty, officials, priests, scribes and their families. In the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, from about 664 BC, the order of the spells became more standardised; scholars call this the Saite recension. The tradition continued under the Ptolemies and only faded around the 1st century BC, when other funerary texts replaced it.

Famous copies

The Papyrus of Ani, made around 1250 BC in the Nineteenth Dynasty for a Theban scribe named Ani, is the most celebrated copy. It is about 24 metres long and beautifully illustrated, including a celebrated weighing-of-the-heart scene. E. A. Wallis Budge acquired it for the British Museum in 1888, where it was cut into sheets for preservation and display.

Other famous examples include the Papyrus of Hunefer, a royal scribe of the reign of Seti I, also in the British Museum, and the Turin papyrus used by Lepsius. Kings did not usually take papyrus copies to the Valley of the Kings; their tombs were decorated with other underworld books, though Book of the Dead spells appear on royal objects and shrines.

Key people

• Ani: a royal scribe and temple official of Thebes in the Nineteenth Dynasty, owner of the most famous illustrated copy. Nothing is known of him beyond his papyrus, in which he appears with his wife Tutu.
• Hunefer: a royal scribe and steward under Seti I, whose papyrus contains one of the finest judgement scenes.
• Karl Richard Lepsius (1810–1884): the Prussian Egyptologist who published the Turin papyrus in 1842, gave the collection its modern name and created the spell numbering.
• E. A. Wallis Budge (1857–1934): keeper at the British Museum who acquired the Papyrus of Ani in 1888 and published widely read translations, now considered outdated.
• Raymond O. Faulkner (1894–1982): British Egyptologist whose English translation became a standard reference for later readers.

Myths and facts

The Book of the Dead is often called the “Egyptian Bible”. This is misleading: there was no fixed text, no single authority behind it and no instruction in moral law beyond what Spell 125 implies. Another popular idea, spread by films and novels, is that it contains spells for raising the dead or cursing tomb robbers. In reality its spells were meant to protect and help the person in whose burial it was placed.

Timeline

• c. 2350 BC: The Pyramid Texts appear in royal burial chambers.
• c. 2100–1800 BC: The Coffin Texts are widely used in the Middle Kingdom.
• c. 1600 BC: Early Book of the Dead spells appear on coffins and shrouds at Thebes.
• c. 1550 BC: Papyrus rolls of the Book of the Dead become common in the New Kingdom.
• c. 1250 BC: The Papyrus of Ani is made at Thebes.
• c. 664 BC: The Saite recension standardises the order of the spells.
• 1842: Lepsius publishes the Turin papyrus and names the “Todtenbuch”.
• 1888: The Papyrus of Ani enters the British Museum.

Why it matters

The Book of the Dead is the richest single source for how ancient Egyptians imagined death, judgement and eternal life. Its idea that a person’s conduct in life would be weighed after death made moral behaviour part of the journey to the afterlife, and its illustrated papyri are among the finest works of Egyptian art.