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Book of The Dead Fragments
Book of The Dead Fragments
A detail from a Book of the Dead segment, housed at the
Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy. The scenes on this version of
the book are similar to those seen on the fragments in New
Zealand and Los Angeles. (Image credit: Art Images via Getty
Images)
The Book of the Dead linen fragment that is housed at the Getty
Research Institute. (Image credit: Digital image courtesy of the
Getty's Open Content Program; CC BY 4.0)
Versions of the Book of the Dead varied from
tomb to tomb, but one of the book's most
famous images is the weighing of the deceased's
heart against a feather, according to the
American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE),
which was not involved with the new finding.
The tradition of including the "Book of the
Dead" in burials began with inscriptions, known
as the Pyramid Texts, written directly on tomb
walls during the late Old Kingdom, and was
initially offered only to royalty buried at
Saqqara. The earliest known Pyramid Text was
found in the tomb of Unas (who lived from
around 2465 B.C. to 2325 B.C.), the last king of
the Fifth Dynasty, according to Encyclopedia
Britannica.
However, as beliefs and religious practices
changed, Egyptians began including adapted
versions, known as the Coffin Texts, that were
written on the coffins of nonroyal people,
including wealthy elites, according to ARCE.
By the time of the New Kingdom (around 1539
B.C.), the afterlife was thought to be accessible
to all who could afford their own Book of the
Dead, and was written on papyrus and linens
that were wrapped around mummified bodies,
according to ARCE and the University of
Canterbury statement.