Commonly known in the West as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Bardo Thodol (Tibetan: བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ, Wylie: bar do thos grol, 'Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State') is a text from a larger corpus of teachings, the Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones,^{[1][note 1]} revealed by Karma Lingpa (1326–1386). It is the best-known work of Nyingma literature.^[3]

The Tibetan text describes, and is intended to guide one through, the experiences that the consciousness has after death, in the bardo, the interval between death and the next rebirth. The text also includes chapters on the signs of death and rituals to undertake when death is closing in or has taken place.

Welcome to the Book of the Dead! Inside these cursed pages you’ll find a horde of undead monsters for your D&D games. Necromancers beware, not all of these monsters can be easily controlled. Included in this book are templates that you can apply to other monsters, turning them into terrifying. The Egyptian Book of the Dead by Wallis Budge, E. (1857-1934) Topics Ancient Egypt, Mythology Collection opensource. PDF download. Download 1 file. THE DEAD James Joyce Lily, the caretaker's daughter, was literally run off her feet. Hardly had she brought one gentleman into the little pantry behind the office on the ground floor and helped him off with his overcoat, than the.

• 2Original text
• 3English translations
• 4Popular influence
• 8Sources

Etymology[edit]

Bar do thos grol (Tibetan: བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ, Wylie: bar do thos grol) translates as:

• bar do: 'intermediate state', 'transitional state', 'in-between state', 'liminal state' (which is synonymous with the Sanskritantarabhāva). Valdez: 'Used loosely, the term 'bardo' refers to the state of existence intermediate between two lives on earth.'^[4] Valdez: '[The] concept arose soon after the Buddha's passing, with a number of earlier Buddhist groups accepting the existence of such an intermediate state, while other schools rejected it.'^[4]
• thos grol: 'liberation', which is synonymous with the Sanskrit word bodhi, 'awakening', 'understanding', 'enlightenment', and synonymous with the term nirvana, 'blowing out', 'extinction', 'the extinction of illusion'.^[5]

Original text[edit]

Origins and dating[edit]

According to Tibetan tradition, the Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State was composed in the 8th century by Padmasambhava, written down by his primary student, Yeshe Tsogyal, buried in the Gampo hills in central Tibet and subsequently discovered by a Tibetanterton, Karma Lingpa, in the 14th century.^[6][7][8]

bar do thos grol[edit]

The Tibetan title is bar do thos grol,^[9]Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State.^[1] It consists of two comparatively long texts:^[1]

• 'Great Liberation through Hearing: The Supplication of the Bardo of Dharmata' (chos nyid bar do'i gsol 'debs thos grol chen mo), the bardo of dharmata (including the bardo of dying);
• 'Great Liberation through Hearing: The Supplication Pointing Out the Bardo of Existence' (strid pa'i bar do ngo sprod gsol 'debs thos grol chen mo), the bardo of existence.

Within the texts themselves, the two combined are referred to as Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo, Great Liberation through Hearing, or just Liberation through Hearing.^{[note 2]}

kar-gling zhi-khro[edit]

It is part of a larger terma cycle, Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones,^[1] (zab-chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol, also known as kar-gling zhi-khro,^[2] popularly known as 'Karma Lingpa's Peaceful and Wrathful Ones.'^[1]

The Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation is known in several versions, containing varying numbers of sections and subsections, and arranged in different orders, ranging from around ten to thirty-eight titles.^[1] The individual texts cover a wide range of subjects, including meditation instructions, visualizations of deities, liturgies and prayers, lists of mantras, descriptions of the signs of death, indications of future rebirth, and texts such as the bar do thos grol that are concerned with the bardo-state.^[1]

Three bardos[edit]

The Bardo Thodol differentiates the intermediate state between lives into three bardos:

1. The chikhai bardo or 'bardo of the moment of death', which features the experience of the 'clear light of reality', or at least the nearest approximation of which one is spiritually capable;
2. The chonyid bardo or 'bardo of the experiencing of reality', which features the experience of visions of various Buddha forms, or the nearest approximations of which one is capable;
3. The sidpa bardo or 'bardo of rebirth', which features karmically impelled hallucinations which eventually result in rebirth, typically yab-yum imagery of men and women passionately entwined.

Egyptian Book Of The Dead Free Online

The Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State also mentions three other bardos:^{[note 3]}

1. 'Life', or ordinary waking consciousness;
2. 'Dhyana' (meditation);
3. 'Dream', the dream state during normal sleep.

Together these 'six bardos' form a classification of states of consciousness into six broad types. Any state of consciousness can form a type of 'intermediate state', intermediate between other states of consciousness. Indeed, one can consider any momentary state of consciousness a bardo, since it lies between our past and future existences; it provides us with the opportunity to experience reality, which is always present but obscured by the projections and confusions that are due to our previous unskillful actions.

English translations[edit]

Evans-Wentz's The Tibetan Book of the Dead[edit]

The bar do thos grol is known in the west as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a title popularized by Walter Evans-Wentz's edition,^[9][10] but as such virtually unknown in Tibet.^[11][1]The Tibetan Book of the Dead was first published in 1927 by Oxford University Press. Dr. Walter Y. Evans-Wentz chose this title because of the parallels he found with the Egyptian Book of the Dead.^[12]

According to John Myrdhin Reynolds, Evans-Wentz's edition of the Tibetan Book of the Dead introduced a number of misunderstandings about Dzogchen.^[13] In fact, Evans-Wentz collected seven texts about visualization of the after-death experiences and he introduced this work collection as 'The Tibetan Book of Death.' Evans-Wentz was well acquainted with Theosophy and used this framework to interpret the translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which was largely provided by two Tibetan lamas who spoke English, Lama Sumdhon Paul and Lama Lobzang Mingnur Dorje.^[14] Evans-Wentz was not familiar with Tibetan Buddhism,^[13] and his view of Tibetan Buddhism was 'fundamentally neither Tibetan nor Buddhist, but Theosophical and Vedantist.'^[15] He introduced a terminology into the translation which was largely derived from Hinduism, as well as from his Theosophical beliefs.^[13] Contrary to the general belief spread in the West by Evans-Wentz, in Tibetan Buddhist practice the Tibetan Book of Dead is not read to the people who are passing away, but it is rather used during life by those who want to learn to visualize what will come after death.^[16]

C. G. Jung’s psychological commentary first appeared in an English translation by R. F. C. Hull in the third revised and expanded Evans-Wentz edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead.^[17] The commentary also appears in the Collected Works.^[18] Jung applied his extensive knowledge of eastern religion to craft a commentary specifically aimed at a western audience unfamiliar with eastern religious tradition in general and Tibetan Buddhism specifically.^[19] He does not attempt to directly correlate the content of the Bardo Thodol with rituals or dogma found in occidental religion, but rather highlights karmic phenomena described on the Bardo plane and shows how they parallel unconscious contents (both personal and collective) encountered in the west, particularly in the context of analytical psychology. Jung’s comments should be taken strictly within the realm of psychology, and not that of theology or metaphysics. Indeed, he warns repeatedly of the dangers for western man in the wholesale adoption of eastern religious traditions such as yoga.^[20]

Other translations and summaries[edit]

• Conze, Edward (1959) Buddhist Scriptures Harmondsworth: Penguin (includes a précis)
• Fremantle, Francesca & Chögyam Trungpa (1975) The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo by Guru Rinpoche according to Karma Lingpa. Boulder: Shambhala ISBN0-394-73064-X, ISBN1-59030-059-9 (reissued 2003)
• Thurman, Robert (trans.) (1994) The Tibetan Book of the Dead, as popularly known in the West; known in Tibet as 'The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between'; composed by Padma Sambhava; discovered by Karma Lingpa; foreword by the Dalai Lama London: Harper Collins ISBN1-85538-412-4
• Coleman, Graham, with Thupten Jinpa (eds.) (2005) The Tibetan Book of the Dead [English title]: The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate States [Tibetan title]; composed by Padma Sambhava: revealed by Karma Lingpa; translated by Gyurme Dorje. London: Penguin Books ISBN978-0-14-045529-8 (the first complete translation). Also: New York: Viking Penguin, NY, 2006. ISBN0-670-85886-2 (hc); ISBN978-0-14-310494-0 (pbk)
• Thupten Jinpa (ed.) (2005) The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Penguin Classics). London: Penguin Books (2005) ISBN0-7139-9414-2

Popular influence[edit]

The Psychedelic Experience[edit]

The Psychedelic Experience, published in 1964, is a guide for LSD-trips, written by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert, loosely based on Evan-Wentz's translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.^[21][22]Aldous Huxley introduced the Tibetan Book of the Dead to Timothy Leary.^[22] According to Leary, Metzner and Alpert, the Tibetan Book of the Dead is

... a key to the innermost recesses of the human mind, and a guide for initiates, and for those who are seeking the spiritual path of liberation.^[23]

They construed the effect of LSD as a 'stripping away' of ego-defenses, finding parallels between the stages of death and rebirth in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and the stages of psychological 'death' and 'rebirth' which Leary had identified during his research.^[24] According to Leary, Metzner and Alpert it is:

... one of the oldest and most universal practices for the initiate to go through the experience of death before he can be spiritually reborn. Symbolically he must die to his past, and to his old ego, before he can take his place in the new spiritual life into which he has been initiated.^[25]

Musical, cinematic, and literary works[edit]

• Finnish composer Erik Bergman composed a work titled Bardo Thödol in 1974 for a speaker, mezzo-soprano, baritone, mixed choir and orchestra; the text was based on a German translation of the Book of the Dead^[26]
• 'When I Was Done Dying', by American musician and composer Dan Deacon, is strongly inspired by the Bardo Thodol. The narrator's 'story' begins at the very moment of his death, through multiple incarnations (a plant, a crab and, at the end, a human). The song. featured in an [adult swim] Off Air segment.
• The late 1960s band The Third Bardo took their name from the western title of this text.
• 1985 2-part documentary filmed in Ladakh and the States, first part entitled 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life'; the second part 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation' was a co-production between NHK (Japan), Mistral (France) and FBC (Canada). Narration in the English version is by Leonard Cohen. See links below.
• Screenwriter and film producer Bruce Joel Rubin, who once lived in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, considered his film Jacob's Ladder a modern interpretation of the Bardo Thodol.^[27][28]
• In 2007, The History Channel released a documentary film, Tibetan Book of the Dead.^{[web 1][note 4]}
• Country musician Sturgill Simpson's song 'Just Let Go' from his 2014 album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is about ego death and the transition between living and dying, and being reborn.^{[clarification needed]}
• In 1994, the Modern Rock band Live had a second album, Throwing Copper. On which, track 9, a song titled 'T.B.D.' (4:28) stands for Tibetan Book of the Dead.^{[web 2]}
• In 1996, Delerium Records released the Liberation Thru' HearingCD which contains spoken/chanted readings from the Bardo Thodol set to music.^{[web 3]}
• Enter the Void, a 2009 French film written and directed by Gaspar Noé, is loosely based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.^{[web 4]}
• The Beatles song Tomorrow Never Knows contains lyrics inspired by The Tibetan Book of the Dead.^[29]
• Electronic group Demdike Stare released an album in 2010, Liberation Through Hearing, featuring a track titled 'Bardo Thodol'.
• Alternative rock group Live has a song called 'T.B.D.' on their 1994 album Throwing Copper, which the singer Ed Kowalczyk explained on the 'The Public Affection' bootleg, stands for 'Tibetan Book of the Dead'. The songs' lyrics also refer to a state 'when the brain is dead'.
• The 1969 novel Ubik by Philip K. Dick is inspired by The Tibetan Book of the Dead and features a direct quote from it by one of the characters.^[30][31]
• Flying Lotus's 2014 concept album, You're Dead!, centers around ideas from the 'Tibetan Book of the Dead'^[32]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^zab-chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol, also known as kar-gling zhi-khro^[2]
2. ^In Tibetan, bar do thos grol,thos grol chen mo, and thos grol
3. ^See also Trikaya, Kosha and Three Bodies Doctrine (Vedanta)
4. ^'The Tibetan book of the Dead is an important document that has stood the test of time and attempts to provide answers to one of mankind's greatest questions: What happens when we die? Interviews with Tibetan Lamas, American scholars, and practicing Buddhists bring this powerful and mysterious text to life. State-of-the-art computer generated graphics will recreabinte this mysterious and exotic world. Follow the dramatized journey of a soul from death...to re-birth. In Tibet, the 'art of dying' is nothing less than the art of living.'^{[web 1]}

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcdefghFremantle 2001, p. 20.
2. ^ ^abNorbu 1989, p. ix.
3. ^Coleman 2005.
4. ^ ^abValdez 2014, p. 166, note 122.
5. ^Fremantle 2001, p. 21.
6. ^Evans-Wentz 1960, p. liv.
7. ^Fremantle, Fremantle & Trungpa 2003, p. xi.
8. ^Forbes & Henley 2013.
9. ^ ^abNorbu 1989, p. xii.
10. ^Reynolds 1989, p. 71-115.
11. ^Lopez 2011, p. 127.
12. ^Evans-Wentz 1960.
13. ^ ^abcReynolds 1989, p. 71.
14. ^Reynolds 1989, p. 72–73, 78.
15. ^Reynolds 1989, p. 78.
16. ^Paul van der Velde
17. ^Evans-Wentz ed. 1965.
18. ^Jung 1977.
19. ^Coward 1985.
20. ^Coward 1985, p. 79-92.
21. ^Merkur 2014, p. 221.
22. ^ ^abGould 2007, p. 218.
23. ^Leary, Metzner & Alpert 1964, p. 11.
24. ^Gould 2007, p. 218-219.
25. ^Leary, Metzner & Albert 1964, p. 12.
26. ^'Information on Bardo Thödol in Finnish'.
27. ^Hartl, John (1990-11-01). 'Adrian Lyne Met A Metaphysical Challenge'. The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
28. ^Golden, Tim (1990-10-28). 'FILM; Up 'Jacob's Ladder' And Into the Hell Of a Veteran's Psyche'. The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-22.
29. ^https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXdbvBzxeb8
30. ^https://coreysbook.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/no-obits-with-ubik-ubik-by-philip-k-dick-book-review/
31. ^https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/philip-k-dick-primer-ranked-order-difficulty/
32. ^https://www.npr.org/2014/10/12/354599863/music-from-deaths-doorstep-a-conversation-with-flying-lotus

Sources[edit]

Printed sources[edit]

• Coleman, Graham (2005), 'Editor's introduction', in Coleman, Graham (ed.), The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation, Penguin Books, ISBN978-0143104940
• Conners, Peter (2013), White Hand Society: The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary & Allen Ginsberg, City Lights Books
• Coward, Howard (1985), Jung and Eastern Thought, Albany: State University of New York Press
• Cuevas, Bryan J. The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Evans-Wentz, W. Y., ed. (1960) [1927], The Tibetan Book of the Dead(PDF) (1957 1st (ebook translation) ed.), Oxford University Press
• Evans-Wentz, W. Y., ed. (1965) [1927], The Tibetan Book of the Dead, London: Oxford University Press
• Forbes, Andrew; Henley, David, eds. (2013), The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead, Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books
• Fremantle, Francesca; Trungpa, Chögyam, eds. (1975), The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo by Guru Rinpoche according to Karma Lingpa, Boulder: Shambhala, ISBN1-59030-059-9
• Fremantle, Francesca (2001), Luminous Emptiness: understanding the Tibetan Book of the dead, Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, ISBN1-57062-450-X
• Gould, Jonathan (2007), Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America, Crown Publishing Group
• Jung, C. G. (1977) [1958], Psychology and Religion: West and East. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 11, Bollingen Series XX, Princeton: Princeton University Press
• Leary, Timothy; Metzner, Ralph; Alpert, Richard (1964), THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE. A manual based on THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD(PDF)
• Lee, Martin A.; Shlain, Bruce (1992), Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD : the CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond, Grove Press
• Lopez, Donald S., Jr. (2011), The Tibetan book of the dead : a biography, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, ISBN978-0691134352
• Merkur, Daniel (2014), The Formation of Hippie Spirituality: 1. Union with God. In: J. Harold Ellens (ed.), 'Seeking the Sacred with Psychoactive Substances: Chemical Paths to Spirituality and to God', ABC-CLIO
• Miles, barry (1998), Many Years From Now, Vintage
• Norbu, Namkhai (1989), 'Foreword', in Reynolds, John Myrdin (ed.), Self-liberation through seeing with naked awareness, Station Hill Press, Inc.
• Reynolds, John Myrdin (1989), 'Appendix I: The views on Dzogchen of W.Y. Evans-Wentz and C.G. Jung', in Reynolds, John Myrdin (ed.), Self-liberation through seeing with naked awareness, Station Hill Press, Inc.
• Valdez, Juan (2014), The Snow Cone Diaries: A Philosopher's Guide to the Information Age, AuthorHouse

Web-sources[edit]

1. ^ ^abThe History Channel: Tibetan Book of the DeadArchived October 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
2. ^friendsoflive.com
3. ^http://www.delerium.co.uk/bands/liberation/index.html
4. ^Stephenson, Hunter (2010-09-14). 'Gaspar Noé's Big Trip'. Interview. Archived from the original on 16 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-15.

Further reading[edit]

• Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche (1991) The Bardo Guidebook Rangjung Yeshe Publications.
• Cuevas, Bryan J. (2003) The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Fremantle, Francesca (2001). Luminous Emptiness: understanding the Tibetan Book of the dead. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications ISBN1-57062-450-X
• Griffin, Mark (2008) The Bardo Thodol – A Golden Opportunity. Los Angeles: HardLight Publishing. ISBN978-0975902028
• Lati Rinpochay & Hopkins, Jeffrey (1985) Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth, Ithaca: Snow Lion
• Venerable Lama Lodo (1987) Bardo Teachings: The Way of Death and Rebirth Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications ISBN0937938602
• Mullin, Glenn H. (1986) Death and Dying: the Tibetan Tradition Penguin-Arkana ISBN0-14-019013-9
• Sögyal Rinpoche, with Gaffney, Patrick & Harvey, Andrew (eds.) (1992) The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. San Francisco: Harper ISBN0-06-250793-1

External links[edit]

• The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life – First part of a documentary filmed in Ladakh by NHK, Mistral and CFB
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation – Second part of a documentary filmed in Ladakh by NHK, Mistral and CFB
• 'The Life, Death and Rebirth of The Tibetan Book of the Dead', Donald S. Lopez Jr., Berfrois, 13 April 2011

The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BCE) to around 50 BCE.^[1] The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw,^[2] is translated as Book of Coming Forth by Day^[3] or Book of Emerging Forth into the Light. 'Book' is the closest term to describe the loose collection of texts^[4] consisting of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife and written by many priests over a period of about 1000 years.

The Book of the Dead, which was placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased, was part of a tradition of funerary texts which includes the earlier Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, which were painted onto objects, not written on papyrus. Some of the spells included in the book were drawn from these older works and date to the 3rd millennium BCE. Other spells were composed later in Egyptian history, dating to the Third Intermediate Period (11th to 7th centuries BCE). A number of the spells which make up the Book continued to be separately inscribed on tomb walls and sarcophagi, as the spells from which they originated always had been.

There was no single or canonicalBook of the Dead. The surviving papyri contain a varying selection of religious and magical texts and vary considerably in their illustration. Some people seem to have commissioned their own copies of the Book of the Dead, perhaps choosing the spells they thought most vital in their own progression to the afterlife. The Book of the Dead was most commonly written in hieroglyphic or hieratic script on a papyrus scroll, and often illustrated with vignettes depicting the deceased and their journey into the afterlife.

The finest example we have of the Egyptian Book of the Dead in antiquity is the Papyrus of Ani. Ani was an Egyptian scribe. It was discovered by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge in 1888 and was taken to the British Museum, where it currently resides.

• 2Spells
• 3Egyptian concepts of death and afterlife
• 5Discovery, translation, interpretation and preservation

Development[edit]

The Book of the Dead developed from a tradition of funerary manuscripts dating back to the Egyptian Old Kingdom. The first funerary texts were the Pyramid Texts, first used in the Pyramid of King Unas of the 5th Dynasty, around 2400 BCE.^[5] These texts were written on the walls of the burial chambers within pyramids, and were exclusively for the use of the pharaoh (and, from the 6th Dynasty, the queen). The Pyramid Texts were written in an unusual hieroglyphic style; many of the hieroglyphs representing humans or animals were left incomplete or drawn mutilated, most likely to prevent them causing any harm to the dead pharaoh.^[6] The purpose of the Pyramid Texts was to help the dead king take his place amongst the gods, in particular to reunite him with his divine father Ra; at this period the afterlife was seen as being in the sky, rather than the underworld described in the Book of the Dead.^[6] Towards the end of the Old Kingdom, the Pyramid Texts ceased to be an exclusively royal privilege, and were adopted by regional governors and other high-ranking officials.

In the Middle Kingdom, a new funerary text emerged, the Coffin Texts. The Coffin Texts used a newer version of the language, new spells, and included illustrations for the first time. The Coffin Texts were most commonly written on the inner surfaces of coffins, though they are occasionally found on tomb walls or on papyri.^[6] The Coffin Texts were available to wealthy private individuals, vastly increasing the number of people who could expect to participate in the afterlife; a process which has been described as the 'democratization of the afterlife'.^[7]

The Book of the Dead first developed in Thebes toward the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period, around 1700 BCE. The earliest known occurrence of the spells included in the Book of the Dead is from the coffin of Queen Mentuhotep, of the 13th Dynasty, where the new spells were included amongst older texts known from the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts. Some of the spells introduced at this time claim an older provenance; for instance the rubric to spell 30B states that it was discovered by the Prince Hordjedef in the reign of King Menkaure, many hundreds of years before it is attested in the archaeological record.^[8]

By the 17th Dynasty, the Book of the Dead had become widespread not only for members of the royal family, but courtiers and other officials as well. At this stage, the spells were typically inscribed on linen shrouds wrapped around the dead, though occasionally they are found written on coffins or on papyrus.^[9]

The New Kingdom saw the Book of the Dead develop and spread further. The famous Spell 125, the 'Weighing of the Heart', is first known from the reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, c.1475 BCE. From this period onward the Book of the Dead was typically written on a papyrus scroll, and the text illustrated with vignettes. During the 19th Dynasty in particular, the vignettes tended to be lavish, sometimes at the expense of the surrounding text.^[10]

In the Third Intermediate Period, the Book of the Dead started to appear in hieratic script, as well as in the traditional hieroglyphics. The hieratic scrolls were a cheaper version, lacking illustration apart from a single vignette at the beginning, and were produced on smaller papyri. At the same time, many burials used additional funerary texts, for instance the Amduat.^[11]

During the 25th and 26th Dynasties, the Book of the Dead was updated, revised and standardised. Spells were ordered and numbered consistently for the first time. This standardised version is known today as the 'Saite recension', after the Saite (26th) Dynasty. In the Late period and Ptolemaic period, the Book of the Dead continued to be based on the Saite recension, though increasingly abbreviated towards the end of the Ptolemaic period. New funerary texts appeared, including the Book of Breathing and Book of Traversing Eternity. The last use of the Book of the Dead was in the 1st century BCE, though some artistic motifs drawn from it were still in use in Roman times.^[12]

Spells[edit]

The Book of the Dead is made up of a number of individual texts and their accompanying illustrations. Most sub-texts begin with the word ro, which can mean 'mouth,' 'speech,' 'spell,' 'utterance,' 'incantation,' or 'a chapter of a book.' This ambiguity reflects the similarity in Egyptian thought between ritual speech and magical power.^[14] In the context of the Book of the Dead, it is typically translated as either chapter or spell. In this article, the word spell is used.

At present, some 192 spells are known,^[15] though no single manuscript contains them all. They served a range of purposes. Some are intended to give the deceased mystical knowledge in the afterlife, or perhaps to identify them with the gods: for instance, Spell 17 is an obscure and lengthy description of the god Atum.^[16] Others are incantations to ensure the different elements of the dead person's being were preserved and reunited, and to give the deceased control over the world around him. Still others protect the deceased from various hostile forces or guide him through the underworld past various obstacles. Famously, two spells also deal with the judgement of the deceased in the Weighing of the Heart ritual.

Such spells as 26–30, and sometimes spells 6 and 126, relate to the heart and were inscribed on scarabs.^[17]

Tibetan Book Of The Dead

The texts and images of the Book of the Dead were magical as well as religious. Magic was as legitimate an activity as praying to the gods, even when the magic was aimed at controlling the gods themselves.^[18] Indeed, there was little distinction for the Ancient Egyptians between magical and religious practice.^[19] The concept of magic (heka) was also intimately linked with the spoken and written word. The act of speaking a ritual formula was an act of creation;^[20] there is a sense in which action and speech were one and the same thing.^[19] The magical power of words extended to the written word. Hieroglyphic script was held to have been invented by the god Thoth, and the hieroglyphs themselves were powerful. Written words conveyed the full force of a spell.^[20] This was even true when the text was abbreviated or omitted, as often occurred in later Book of the Dead scrolls, particularly if the accompanying images were present.^[21] The Egyptians also believed that knowing the name of something gave power over it; thus, the Book of the Dead equips its owner with the mystical names of many of the entities he would encounter in the afterlife, giving him power over them.^[22]

The spells of the Book of the Dead made use of several magical techniques which can also be seen in other areas of Egyptian life. A number of spells are for magical amulets, which would protect the deceased from harm. In addition to being represented on a Book of the Dead papyrus, these spells appeared on amulets wound into the wrappings of a mummy.^[18] Everyday magic made use of amulets in huge numbers. Other items in direct contact with the body in the tomb, such as headrests, were also considered to have amuletic value.^[23] A number of spells also refer to Egyptian beliefs about the magical healing power of saliva.^[18]

Organization[edit]

Almost every Book of the Dead was unique, containing a different mixture of spells drawn from the corpus of texts available. For most of the history of the Book of the Dead there was no defined order or structure.^[24] In fact, until Paul Barguet's 1967 'pioneering study' of common themes between texts,^[25] Egyptologists concluded there was no internal structure at all.^[26] It is only from the Saite period (26th Dynasty) onwards that there is a defined order.^[27]

The Books of the Dead from the Saite period tend to organize the Chapters into four sections:

• Chapters 1–16* The deceased enters the tomb and descends to the underworld, and the body regains its powers of movement and speech.
• Chapters 17–63 Explanation of the mythic origin of the gods and places. The deceased is made to live again so that he may arise, reborn, with the morning sun.
• Chapters 64–129 The deceased travels across the sky in the sun ark as one of the blessed dead. In the evening, the deceased travels to the underworld to appear before Osiris.
• Chapters 130–189 Having been vindicated, the deceased assumes power in the universe as one of the gods. This section also includes assorted chapters on protective amulets, provision of food, and important places.^[26]

Egyptian concepts of death and afterlife[edit]

The spells in the Book of the Dead depict Egyptian beliefs about the nature of death and the afterlife. The Book of the Dead is a vital source of information about Egyptian beliefs in this area.

Preservation[edit]

One aspect of death was the disintegration of the various kheperu, or modes of existence.^[28] Funerary rituals served to re-integrate these different aspects of being. Mummification served to preserve and transform the physical body into sah, an idealised form with divine aspects;^[29] the Book of the Dead contained spells aimed at preserving the body of the deceased, which may have been recited during the process of mummification.^[30] The heart, which was regarded as the aspect of being which included intelligence and memory, was also protected with spells, and in case anything happened to the physical heart, it was common to bury jewelled heart scarabs with a body to provide a replacement. The ka, or life-force, remained in the tomb with the dead body, and required sustenance from offerings of food, water and incense. In case priests or relatives failed to provide these offerings, Spell 105 ensured the ka was satisfied.^[31] The name of the dead person, which constituted their individuality and was required for their continued existence, was written in many places throughout the Book, and spell 25 ensured the deceased would remember their own name.^[32] The ba was a free-ranging spirit aspect of the deceased. It was the ba, depicted as a human-headed bird, which could 'go forth by day' from the tomb into the world; spells 61 and 89 acted to preserve it.^[33] Finally, the shut, or shadow of the deceased, was preserved by spells 91, 92 and 188.^[34] If all these aspects of the person could be variously preserved, remembered, and satiated, then the dead person would live on in the form of an akh. An akh was a blessed spirit with magical powers who would dwell among the gods.^[35]

Afterlife[edit]

The nature of the afterlife which the dead person enjoyed is difficult to define, because of the differing traditions within Ancient Egyptian religion. In the Book of the Dead, the dead were taken into the presence of the god Osiris, who was confined to the subterranean Duat. There are also spells to enable the ba or akh of the dead to join Ra as he travelled the sky in his sun-barque, and help him fight off Apep.^[36] As well as joining the Gods, the Book of the Dead also depicts the dead living on in the 'Field of Reeds', a paradisiac likeness of the real world.^[37] The Field of Reeds is depicted as a lush, plentiful version of the Egypt of the living. There are fields, crops, oxen, people and waterways. The deceased person is shown encountering the Great Ennead, a group of gods, as well as his or her own parents. While the depiction of the Field of Reeds is pleasant and plentiful, it is also clear that manual labour is required. For this reason burials included a number of statuettes named shabti, or later ushebti. These statuettes were inscribed with a spell, also included in the Book of the Dead, requiring them to undertake any manual labour that might be the owner's duty in the afterlife.^[38] It is also clear that the dead not only went to a place where the gods lived, but that they acquired divine characteristics themselves. In many occasions, the deceased is mentioned as 'The Osiris – [Name]' in the Book of the Dead.

The path to the afterlife as laid out in the Book of the Dead was a difficult one. The deceased was required to pass a series of gates, caverns and mounds guarded by supernatural creatures.^[40] These terrifying entities were armed with enormous knives and are illustrated in grotesque forms, typically as human figures with the heads of animals or combinations of different ferocious beasts. Their names—for instance, 'He who lives on snakes' or 'He who dances in blood'—are equally grotesque. These creatures had to be pacified by reciting the appropriate spells included in the Book of the Dead; once pacified they posed no further threat, and could even extend their protection to the dead person.^[41] Another breed of supernatural creatures was 'slaughterers' who killed the unrighteous on behalf of Osiris; the Book of the Dead equipped its owner to escape their attentions.^[42] As well as these supernatural entities, there were also threats from natural or supernatural animals, including crocodiles, snakes, and beetles.^[43]

Judgment[edit]

If all the obstacles of the Duat could be negotiated, the deceased would be judged in the 'Weighing of the Heart' ritual, depicted in Spell 125. The deceased was led by the god Anubis into the presence of Osiris. There, the dead person swore that he had not committed any sin from a list of 42 sins,^[44] reciting a text known as the 'Negative Confession'. Then the dead person's heart was weighed on a pair of scales, against the goddess Maat, who embodied truth and justice. Maat was often represented by an ostrich feather, the hieroglyphic sign for her name.^[45] At this point, there was a risk that the deceased's heart would bear witness, owning up to sins committed in life; Spell 30B guarded against this eventuality. If the scales balanced, this meant the deceased had led a good life. Anubis would take them to Osiris and they would find their place in the afterlife, becoming maa-kheru, meaning 'vindicated' or 'true of voice'.^[46] If the heart was out of balance with Maat, then another fearsome beast called Ammit, the Devourer, stood ready to eat it and put the dead person's afterlife to an early and unpleasant end.^[47]

This scene is remarkable not only for its vividness but as one of the few parts of the Book of the Dead with any explicit moral content. The judgment of the dead and the Negative Confession were a representation of the conventional moral code which governed Egyptian society. For every 'I have not...' in the Negative Confession, it is possible to read an unexpressed 'Thou shalt not'.^[48] While the Ten Commandments of Jewish and Christian ethics are rules of conduct laid down by a perceived divine revelation, the Negative Confession is more a divine enforcement of everyday morality.^[49] Views differ among Egyptologists about how far the Negative Confession represents a moral absolute, with ethical purity being necessary for progress to the Afterlife. John Taylor points out the wording of Spells 30B and 125 suggests a pragmatic approach to morality; by preventing the heart from contradicting him with any inconvenient truths, it seems that the deceased could enter the afterlife even if their life had not been entirely pure.^[47] Ogden Goelet says 'without an exemplary and moral existence, there was no hope for a successful afterlife',^[48] while Geraldine Pinch suggests that the Negative Confession is essentially similar to the spells protecting from demons, and that the success of the Weighing of the Heart depended on the mystical knowledge of the true names of the judges rather than on the deceased's moral behaviour.^[50]

Producing a Book of the Dead[edit]

A Book of the Dead papyrus was produced to order by scribes. They were commissioned by people in preparation for their own funerals, or by the relatives of someone recently deceased. They were expensive items; one source gives the price of a Book of the Dead scroll as one deben of silver,^[51] perhaps half the annual pay of a labourer.^[52] Papyrus itself was evidently costly, as there are many instances of its re-use in everyday documents, creating palimpsests. In one case, a Book of the Dead was written on second-hand papyrus.^[53]

Most owners of the Book of the Dead were evidently part of the social elite; they were initially reserved for the royal family, but later papyri are found in the tombs of scribes, priests and officials. Most owners were men, and generally the vignettes included the owner's wife as well. Towards the beginning of the history of the Book of the Dead, there are roughly 10 copies belonging to men for every 1 for a woman. However, during the Third Intermediate Period, 2 were for women for every 1 for a man; and women owned roughly a third of the hieratic paypri from the Late and Ptolemaic Periods.^[54]

The dimensions of a Book of the Dead could vary widely; the longest is 40m long while some are as short as 1m. They are composed of sheets of papyrus joined together, the individual papyri varying in width from 15 cm to 45 cm. The scribes working on Book of the Dead papyri took more care over their work than those working on more mundane texts; care was taken to frame the text within margins, and to avoid writing on the joints between sheets. The words peret em heru, or coming forth by day sometimes appear on the reverse of the outer margin, perhaps acting as a label.^[53]

Books were often prefabricated in funerary workshops, with spaces being left for the name of the deceased to be written in later.^[55] For instance, in the Papyrus of Ani, the name 'Ani' appears at the top or bottom of a column, or immediately following a rubric introducing him as the speaker of a block of text; the name appears in a different handwriting to the rest of the manuscript, and in some places is mis-spelt or omitted entirely.^[52]

The text of a New KingdomBook of the Dead was typically written in cursive hieroglyphs, most often from left to right, but also sometimes from right to left. The hieroglyphs were in columns, which were separated by black lines – a similar arrangement to that used when hieroglyphs were carved on tomb walls or monuments. Illustrations were put in frames above, below, or between the columns of text. The largest illustrations took up a full page of papyrus.^[56]

From the 21st Dynasty onward, more copies of the Book of the Dead are found in hieratic script. The calligraphy is similar to that of other hieratic manuscripts of the New Kingdom; the text is written in horizontal lines across wide columns (often the column size corresponds to the size of the papyrus sheets of which a scroll is made up). Occasionally a hieratic Book of the Dead contains captions in hieroglyphic.

The text of a Book of the Dead was written in both black and red ink, regardless of whether it was in hieroglyphic or hieratic script. Most of the text was in black, with red ink used for the titles of spells, opening and closing sections of spells, the instructions to perform spells correctly in rituals, and also for the names of dangerous creatures such as the demon Apep.^[57] The black ink used was based on carbon, and the red ink on ochre, in both cases mixed with water.^[58]

The style and nature of the vignettes used to illustrate a Book of the Dead varies widely. Some contain lavish colour illustrations, even making use of gold leaf. Others contain only line drawings, or one simple illustration at the opening.^[59]

Book of the Dead papyri were often the work of several different scribes and artists whose work was literally pasted together.^[53] It is usually possible to identify the style of more than one scribe used on a given manuscript, even when the manuscript is a shorter one.^[57] The text and illustrations were produced by different scribes; there are a number of Books where the text was completed but the illustrations were left empty.^[60]

Discovery, translation, interpretation and preservation[edit]

The existence of the Book of the Dead was known as early as the Middle Ages, well before its contents could be understood. Since it was found in tombs, it was evidently a document of a religious nature, and this led to the widespread but mistaken belief that the Book of the Dead was the equivalent of a Bible or Qur'an.^[61][62]

In 1842 Karl Richard Lepsius published a translation of a manuscript dated to the Ptolemaic era and coined the name 'Book of The Dead' (das Todtenbuch). He also introduced the spell numbering system which is still in use, identifying 165 different spells.^[15] Lepsius promoted the idea of a comparative edition of the Book of the Dead, drawing on all relevant manuscripts. This project was undertaken by Édouard Naville, starting in 1875 and completed in 1886, producing a three-volume work including a selection of vignettes for every one of the 186 spells he worked with, the more significant variations of the text for every spell, and commentary. In 1867 Samuel Birch of the British Museum published the first extensive English translation.^[63] In 1876 he published a photographic copy of the Papyrus of Nebseny.^[64]

The Book Of The Dead Pdf

The work of E. A. Wallis Budge, Birch's successor at the British Museum, is still in wide circulation – including both his hieroglyphic editions and his English translations of the Papyrus of Ani, though the latter are now considered inaccurate and out-of-date.^[65] More recent translations in English have been published by T. G. Allen (1974) and Raymond O. Faulkner (1972).^[66] As more work has been done on the Book of the Dead, more spells have been identified, and the total now stands at 192.^[15]

In the 1970s, Ursula Rößler-Köhler at the University of Bonn began a working group to develop the history of Book of the Dead texts. This later received sponsorship from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the German Research Foundation, in 2004 coming under the auspices of the German Academies of Sciences and Arts. Today the Book of the Dead Project, as it is called, maintains a database of documentation and photography covering 80% of extant copies and fragments from the corpus of Book of the Dead texts, and provides current services to Egyptologists.^[67] It is housed at the University of Bonn, with much material available online.^[68] Affiliated scholars are authoring a series of monograph studies, the Studien zum Altägyptischen Totenbuch, alongside a series that publishes the manuscripts themselves, Handschriften des Altägyptischen Totenbuches.^[69] Both are in print by Harrassowitz Verlag. Orientverlag has released another series of related monographs, Totenbuchtexte, focused on analysis, synoptic comparison, and textual criticism.

Research work on the Book of the Dead has always posed technical difficulties thanks to the need to copy very long hieroglyphic texts. Initially, these were copied out by hand, with the assistance either of tracing paper or a camera lucida. In the mid-19th century, hieroglyphic fonts became available and made lithographic reproduction of manuscripts more feasible. In the present day, hieroglyphics can be rendered in desktop publishing software and this, combined with digital print technology, means that the costs of publishing a Book of the Dead may be considerably reduced. However, a very large amount of the source material in museums around the world remains unpublished.^[70]

Chronology[edit]

• c. 3150 BCE – First preserved hieroglyphs, on small labels in the tomb of a king buried (in tomb U-j) at Abydos
• c. 3000 BCE – The beginning of the numbered dynasties of kings of ancient Egypt
• 'c. 2345 BCE – First royal pyramid, of King Unas, to contain the Pyramid Texts, carved precursors (intended only for the king) to the funerary literature from which the Book of the Dead ultimately developed
• c. 2100 BCE – First Coffin Texts, developed from the Pyramid Texts and for a time painted on the coffins of commoners. Many spells of the Book of the Dead are closely derived from them
• c. 1600 BCE – Earliest spells of the Book of the Dead, on the coffin of Queen Menthuhotep, a ancestor of kings from the New Kingdom
• c. 1550 BCE – From this time onward to the beginning of the New Kingdom, papyrus copies of the Book of the Dead are used instead of inscribing spells on the walls of the tombs
• c. 600 BCE – Approximately when the order of the spells became standard
• 2nd century CE – Possibly the last copies of the Book of the Dead were produced, but it is a poorly documented era of history
• 313 CE – Christianity spreads to Egypt
• 1798 CE – Napoleon's invasion of Egypt encourages European interests in ancient Egypt; 1799, Vivant Denon was handed a copy of the Book of the Dead
• 1805 CE – J. Marc Cadet makes the first publication, on 18 plates, of a Book of the Dead, Copie figurée d'un Roleau de Papyrus trouvé à Thèbes dans un Thombeau des Rois, accompagnèe d'une notice descriptive, Paris, Levrault
• 1822 CE – Jean-François Champollion announces the key to the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, subsequently developed in his later publications, the most extensive after his death in 1832
• 1842 CE – Lepsius publishes the first major study of the Book of the Dead, begins the numbering of the spells or chapters, and brings the name 'Book of the Dead' into general circulation^[71]

See also[edit]

• Bardo Thodol (Tibetan book of the dead)
• Necronomicon (H. P. Lovecraft's book of the dead)
• Joseph Smith Papyri. Collection includes Books of the Dead of TaSheritMin, Nefer-ir-nebu and Amenhotep.

References[edit]

1. ^Taylor 2010, p.54
2. ^Allen, 2000. p.316
3. ^Taylor 2010, p.55; or perhaps 'Utterances of Going Forth by Day' - D'Auria 1988, p.187
4. ^The Egyptian Book of the Dead by Anonymous (2 Jun 2014) ...with an introduction by Paul Mirecki (VII)
5. ^Faulkner p. 54
6. ^ ^abcTaylor 2010, p. 54
7. ^D'Auria et al p.187
8. ^Taylor 2010, p.34
9. ^Taylor 2010, p. 55
10. ^Taylor 2010, p.35–7
11. ^Taylor 2010, p.57–8
12. ^Taylor 2010, p.59 60
13. ^Taylor 2010, p.51
14. ^Faulkner 1994, p.145; Taylor 2010, p.29
15. ^ ^abcFaulkner 1994, p.18
16. ^Taylor 2010, p.51, 56
17. ^Hornung, Erik; David Lorton (15 June 1999). The ancient Egyptian books of the afterlife. Cornell University Press. p. 14. ISBN978-0-8014-8515-2.
18. ^ ^abcFaulkner 1994, p.146
19. ^ ^abFaulkner 1994, p.145
20. ^ ^abTaylor 2010, p.30
21. ^Taylor 2010, p.32–3; Faulkner 1994, p.148
22. ^Taylor 2010, p.30–1
23. ^Pinch 1994, p.104–5
24. ^Taylor 2010, p.55
25. ^Barguet, Paul (1967). Le Livre des morts des anciens Égyptiens (in French). Paris: Éditions du Cerf.
26. ^ ^abFaulkner 1994, p.141
27. ^Taylor, p.58
28. ^Taylor 2010, p.16-17
29. ^Taylor 2010, p.17 & 20
30. ^For instance, Spell 154. Taylor 2010, p.161
31. ^Taylor 2010, p.163-4
32. ^Taylor 2010, p.163
33. ^Taylor 2010, p.17, 164
34. ^Taylor 2010, p.164
35. ^Taylor 2010, p.17
36. ^Spells 100–2, 129–131 and 133–136. Taylor 2010, p.239–241
37. ^Spells 109, 110 and 149. Taylor 2010, p.238–240
38. ^Taylor 2010, p.242–245
39. ^Taylor 2010, p.143
40. ^Taylor 2010, p.135
41. ^Taylor 2010, p.136–7
42. ^Taylor 2010, p. 188
43. ^Taylor 2010, p. 184–7
44. ^Taylor 2010, p. 208
45. ^Taylor 2010, p.209
46. ^Taylor 2010, p.215
47. ^ ^abTaylor 2010, p.212
48. ^ ^abFaulkner 1994, p.14
49. ^Taylor 2010,p.204–5
50. ^Pinch 1994, p.155
51. ^Taylor 2010, p. 62
52. ^ ^abFaulkner 1994, p. 142
53. ^ ^abcTaylor 2010, p. 264
54. ^Taylor 2010, p. 62–63
55. ^Taylor 2010, p. 267
56. ^Taylor 2010, p. 266
57. ^ ^abTaylor 2010, p. 270
58. ^Taylor 2010, p. 277
59. ^Taylor 2010, p. 267–8
60. ^Taylor 2010, p. 268
61. ^Faulkner 1994, p.13
62. ^Taylor 210, p.288 9
63. ^'Egypt's Place in Universal History', Vol 5, 1867
64. ^Taylor 2010, p.289 92
65. ^Taylor 2010, p.291
66. ^Hornung 1999, p.15–16
67. ^Müller-Roth 2010, p.190-191
68. ^Das Altagyptische Totenbuch: Ein Digitales Textzeugenarchiv (external link)
69. ^Müller-Roth 2010, p.191
70. ^Taylor 2010, p.292–7
71. ^Kemp, Barry (2007). How to Read the Egyptian Book of the Dead. New York: Granta Publications. pp. 112–113.

Further reading[edit]

• Allen, James P., Middle Egyptian – An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, first edition, Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN0-521-77483-7
• Allen, Thomas George, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: Documents in the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1960.
• Allen, Thomas George, The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day. Ideas of the Ancient Egyptians Concerning the Hereafter as Expressed in Their Own Terms, SAOC vol. 37; University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1974.
• Assmann, Jan (2005) [2001]. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt. Translated by David Lorton. Cornell University Press. ISBN0-8014-4241-9
• D'Auria, S (et al.) Mummies and Magic: the Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1989. ISBN0-87846-307-0
• Faulkner, Raymond O; Andrews, Carol (editor), The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. University of Texas Press, Austin, 1972.
• Faulkner, Raymond O (translator); von Dassow, Eva (editor), The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Book of Going forth by Day. The First Authentic Presentation of the Complete Papyrus of Ani. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1994.
• Hornung, Erik; Lorton, D (translator), The Ancient Egyptian books of the Afterlife. Cornell University Press, 1999. ISBN0-8014-8515-0
• Lapp, G, The Papyrus of Nu (Catalogue of Books of the Dead in the British Museum). British Museum Press, London, 1997.
• Müller-Roth, Marcus, 'The Book of the Dead Project: Past, present and future.' British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan 15 (2010): 189-200.
• Niwinski, Andrzej, Studies on the Illustrated Theban Funerary Papyri of the 11th and 10th Centuries B.C.. OBO vol. 86; Universitätsverlag, Freiburg, 1989.
• Pinch, Geraldine, Magic in Ancient Egypt. British Museum Press, London, 1994. ISBN0-7141-0971-1
• Taylor, John H. (Editor), Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead: Journey through the afterlife. British Museum Press, London, 2010. ISBN978-0-7141-1993-9

External links[edit]

• The Mummy ChamberBrooklyn Museum Exhibit
• Das altägyptische Totenbuch - ein digitales Textzeugenarchiv Complete digital archive of all witnesses for the Book of the Dead (with descriptions of the (c. 3000) objects and (c. 20.000) images)
• Online Readable Text, with several images and reproductions of Egyptian papyri
• Papyrus of Hunefer, with many scenes and their formula English translations, from the copy now in the British Museum