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Book of the Dead

© Suzanne Hill

Introduction

While investigating an article on illuminated manuscripts, I came across this passage in a well-known encyclopedia: “The first book illustrations appeared in the European illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages.”

I found this statement difficult to accept. I speculated that the Chinese, having invented paper centuries before the Europeans, had most likely created illustrated texts using their traditional brush and ink techniques. And hadn’t the Egyptians invented papyrus before the advent of paper, and decorated it with heiroglyphs and artwork? On a recent trip to Boston, I visited the Museum of Fine Arts to conduct my own research testing the accuracy of this statement. I toured the halls where Persian manuscripts and pages from the Qu’uran are on display - stunningly beautiful examples of Islamic art, but produced at the same time in history as the European manuscripts, not before. So this example didn’t prove my point. Then I stepped into the Egyptian art galleries. Sure enough, I discovered that while European illuminated manuscripts were being developed beginning about 500 A.D., about two thousand years before that the Egyptians were illustrating their now-famous Book of the Dead.

Egyptian Beliefs

The Egyptians had strong beliefs of the afterlife as a continuation of earthly life. They made elaborate preparations to enjoy the afterlife: what they took along with them, or what they were buried with, could determine their quality of life in the hereafter. They believed they could take with them what they had loved in this life, in order to fully enjoy their afterlife. So the Egyptians filled their tombs with items for use in the afterlife, including clothing, wigs, food, cosmetics, and jewelry. The rich had statues representing servants who would care for them in the next world. Scenes of daily life were painted on walls inside their tombs or on their coffins. They believed that certain prayers said by priests would make Osiris, the god who presided over the dead, bring these scenes to life.

Book of the Dead Defined

Many Egyptians bought texts containing prayers, hymns, litanies, spells, and and magic formulae that were designed to guide their souls through the afterlife, protecting them and providing for their needs. It is believed that many of these prayers and spells were recited by priests at their funerals. Passages from these texts were painted on their coffins, or transcribed onto scrolls to be placed in their tombs. The presence of the scrolls within the reach of the deceased made them available to him when he needed them.