Archaeologists Found the Lost ‘Book of the Dead' Buried in an Egyptian Cemetery
Egyptian archaeologists located a lost 3,500-year-old cemetery containing mummies and statues—among other discoveries.
They found a 'Book of the Dead' papyrus scroll measuring over 43 feet long—a rare surviving copy of the traditional burial item.
The team behind the find was mum on the details of the textual discovery.
Ancient Egyptians sure knew how to stage a burial, including canopic jars to hold organs and scrolls from the 'Book of the Dead' to help the deceased navigate the afterlife.
In central Egypt, archaeologists uncovered one of these elaborate scenes: a 3,500-year-old New Kingdom cemetery filled with mummies, amulets, statues, canopic jars, and a 43-foot-long papyrus scroll containing part of the Book of the Dead.
This scroll is the first complete papyrus found in the Al-Ghuraifa area, and is 'characterized by being in good condition,' Mustafa Waziri, secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a translated Arabic statement from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
While the cemetery—dating to sometime between 1550 BC to 1070 BC—was significant for the hundreds of archaeological finds and tombs carved into the rock located within its boundaries, the discovery of what could be a copy of the 'Book of the Dead' captured the attention of experts as a truly rare find. But with few details released to the public about the contents of the scroll—believed to be 43 to 49 feet in length—there's plenty of questions remaining about this particular copy of the traditional Egyptian cultural book.
These texts—which can differ depending on the writer—first appeared at the start of the New Kingdom around 1550 BC. As a result, locating one in 'good condition' from the era isn't a common occurrence.
'If it's that long and well-preserved [then it's] certainly a great and interesting find,' Lara Weiss, CEO of the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum in Germany, told Live Science.
Foy Scalf, an Egyptologist at The University of Chicago told Live Science that it's 'very rare' to find a copy in the grave it was originally buried in—although, without photographs and an official publication describing the text, it's hard to verify the details of the find.
The book, which is more properly translated as 'The Chapters/Book of Going Forth By Day,' played a key role in ancient Egyptian culture. Any examples of the text give researchers insight into ancient Egyptian religion and beliefs about an afterlife, according to the American Research Center in Egypt.
'The 'Book of the Dead' reveals central aspects of the ancient Egyptians' belief system,' the center writes, 'and, like many topics in Egyptology, our theories are constantly changing, growing, and adapting with every new translation of this text.'
While the 'Book of the Dead' may continue to interest researchers—the Egyptian ministry says they expect the scroll to be displayed in the Grand Egyptian Museum—the text wasn't the only item found in the burial chambers.
The team located stone and wood coffins containing mummies, more than 25,000 ushabti statues, an untold number of utensils, thousands of stone and wooden amulets, and canopic jars. The engraved and colored wooden coffins—including that of Ta-de-Isa, daughter of Eret Haru, the high priest of Djehuti in Al-Ashmunin—were highlights of the collection. Next to her coffin were two wooden boxes with her canopic vessels, in addition to a complete set of ushabti statues and a statue of the ostrich-like deity, Ptah Sokar.
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