The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Dead were funerary texts that were used for nearly 1,500 years. They took the form of spells (both magical and religious) and illustrations inscribed onto a papyrus scroll that were buried in a tomb with the deceased. It was believed that these spells gave the souls of the dead the knowledge and power they needed to navigate the treacherous netherworld in safety, and to achieve a full afterlife.
Books of the Dead were created by highly skilled scribes and artists. Often more than
one scribe would work on a single text, typically writing in cursive hieroglyphics (picture
symbols) or hieratic script (a form of hieroglyphics used by priests), in black-and-red
ink on papyrus scrolls. Illustrations depicted the journey through the netherworld, with
vignettes accompanying the spells. The first Books of the Dead were prepared for elite
figures, but by the New Kingdom era (c.1570–1069 bce), the texts had become available
to the wider society—the most elaborate versions date from this time.
The books were organized into chapters, and scribes composed the contents according
to the patron’s request, incorporating a selection of the 192 prayers available that best
reflected how the patron had lived their life. No two books are the same, although most
include Spell 125, “Weighing of the Heart,” which instructs the soul of the deceased on how
to address Osiris, god of the afterlife, following successful judgment of their earthly life.
The term “Book of the Dead” was coined by Prussian Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius (1810–84), but a closer translation of its Egyptian name is the “Book of Coming Forth into Day.” These pictorial guides for the dead provide vital insight into the Ancient Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife and a tantalizing glimpse into a vanished civilization.
Ref:
Remarkable Books: The World’s Most Beautiful and Historic Works