Pyramid Texts: The Oldest Religious Writings of Egypt

The Pyramid Texts are the oldest substantial religious writings from ancient Egypt, carved on the walls of royal burial chambers from about 2350 BC. They first appear in the pyramid of Unas, the last king of the Fifth Dynasty, at Saqqara near Memphis. Made up of hundreds of spells, they reveal how Egyptians imagined the king’s journey after death, and they became the foundation of later funerary books such as the Book of the Dead.

Background: silent pyramids

For more than two centuries Egypt’s royal pyramids, including the Great Pyramid of Giza, had bare inner chambers with no religious inscriptions. Rituals for the dead king were performed in the temples beside the pyramids, and their words were probably recited from papyrus rather than carved in stone.

Unas, who reigned around 2375-2345 BC, broke with this practice. His pyramid at Saqqara is small, originally about 43 metres high, and today it is a ruined mound. Inside, however, the walls of the antechamber, burial chamber and corridor are covered with vertical columns of hieroglyphs, once filled with blue pigment, while the ceilings are painted with stars.

Many of the spells are clearly older than Unas. Their language and references suggest that some were composed generations earlier and passed down in temple archives. The decision to carve them was new, not the texts themselves.

The pyramid of Unas as a monument

Besides its texts, the complex of Unas is notable for its long causeway, decorated with reliefs of boats carrying granite columns from Aswan, markets, craftsmen and a famous scene of starving people. Centuries later, in the 13th century BC, Prince Khaemwaset, a son of Ramesses II, restored the pyramid and left an inscription recording his work on its south face.

Where the texts appear

After Unas, the texts were carved in the pyramids of the Sixth Dynasty kings Teti, Pepi I, Merenre and Pepi II. They were also placed in the pyramids of several queens, among them Neith, Iput II and Wedjebten, wives of Pepi II, and Ankhesenpepi II. The last known royal example is in the small pyramid of Ibi, an Eighth Dynasty king, around 2150 BC.

No two pyramids have exactly the same selection. Unas’s chambers contain a little over 200 spells, while later pyramids include many more. Modern editions number them as “utterances” or “spells”: the German scholar Kurt Sethe catalogued 714 in his edition of 1908-1922, and later work has raised the total to more than 750.

Discovery

The texts were found in 1880-1881. Workmen working for the Egyptian Antiquities Service entered the pyramid of Pepi I and found inscribed walls; soon afterwards the French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero, the service’s director, entered the pyramid of Unas in 1881. Maspero published the texts between 1882 and 1892.

Sethe’s edition became the standard reference. English translations were made by Samuel Mercer in 1952, by Raymond Faulkner in 1969 and by James P. Allen in 2005, whose version arranges the spells pyramid by pyramid as they appear on the walls.

What the spells say

The spells are not a single narrative. They include offering formulas, protective charms against snakes and scorpions, hymns, and spells for the resurrection and ascent of the king. Many of them address the king directly and tell him to rise, gather his bones and take his place in the sky.

Two ideas of the afterlife sit side by side. In one, the king joins the sun god Ra and travels with him across the sky in his boat. In the other, he becomes one with Osiris, the god who was murdered by his brother Seth and brought back to life, and who ruled the dead. The king also hopes to join the “imperishable stars”, the circumpolar stars that never set.

The texts were arranged with their placement in mind. Scholars such as Allen have argued that the burial chamber represented the underworld, the antechamber the horizon where the sun rises, and the corridor the path out into the sky. The spells nearest the sarcophagus concern offerings and rebirth, while those further out deal with the ascent.

The Cannibal Hymn and magical protection

The best-known passage is the so-called Cannibal Hymn, found in the pyramids of Unas and Teti. It describes the king hunting the gods, cooking and eating them to absorb their strength and wisdom. Egyptologists generally read it as vivid symbolic language about the king’s power over the cosmos, not as a record of any real practice.

The texts also show a belief in the power of written signs. In some later pyramids, hieroglyphs of dangerous creatures such as snakes or scorpions were cut in half or drawn without legs, so that they could not harm the king in his tomb.

Language and style

The Pyramid Texts are written in Old Egyptian, the earliest stage of the language known from long connected texts. Many spells use repetition, wordplay and short rhythmic lines, which suggests they were meant to be spoken aloud by priests during the burial and later rituals.

The spells often switch between the first, second and third person. In some, a priest speaks to the king; in others, the king himself speaks to the gods. In the oldest versions the king’s name was carved into the text where the spell referred to him, so that each copy applied to one particular ruler.

Some spells mention older practices, such as burial in the earth or the use of particular regalia, that had long since changed. This mix of old and new material is one reason scholars think the collection grew over centuries before it was first carved in stone.

Myths and facts

A common idea is that the Pyramid Texts explain how the pyramids were built. They do not: they are religious spells and say nothing about construction methods. Another misconception is that they were meant for ordinary people. In the Old Kingdom they were reserved for kings and, later, for queens; only from the Middle Kingdom onward did similar spells become widely available to non-royal people.

Legacy

At the end of the Old Kingdom, during the First Intermediate Period, many of these spells were adapted for officials and local elites and painted inside their wooden coffins. These Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom included new spells as well as old ones.

In the New Kingdom, the tradition continued in the papyrus scrolls known as the Book of the Dead, placed in the tombs of people who could afford them. Some Pyramid Text spells were still being copied in Late Period tombs more than 1,500 years after Unas. Because they contain early forms of the Egyptian language and myths, the texts are also a key source for scholars of religion and grammar.

Timeline

• c. 2375-2345 BC: Reign of Unas; the first Pyramid Texts are carved in his pyramid at Saqqara.
• c. 2345-2181 BC: Sixth Dynasty kings and queens include the texts in their pyramids.
• c. 2150 BC: The pyramid of Ibi of the Eighth Dynasty contains the last known royal set.
• 1880-1881: The texts are discovered in Saqqara pyramids; Maspero enters the pyramid of Unas.
• 1882-1892: Maspero publishes the first edition.
• 1908-1922: Kurt Sethe publishes the standard scholarly edition.
• 1969: Raymond Faulkner’s English translation appears.
• 2005: James P. Allen publishes a new translation arranged by pyramid.

Why it matters

The Pyramid Texts are the earliest large window into Egyptian religious thought. They show how kingship, the sun cult and the myth of Osiris were woven together, and they began a tradition of funerary writing that lasted for two thousand years.