Knowra Book of the Dead Book of the Dead The Book of the Dead is a modern name for collections of ancient Egyptian funerary spells written on papyrus and other materials. These texts guided the deceased through dangers and rites in the afterlife.
Ancient Egyptian religion : The religious beliefs, rituals, and institutions of ancient Egypt, centered on divine power and the maintenance of cosmic order. The spells draw on this religious world and its gods, rituals, and afterlife expectations.
Spell 125 : A Book of the Dead spell depicting the deceased's judgment before Osiris in the Hall of Two Truths. It gives the collection's best-known account of judgment and the weighing of the heart.
Pyramid Texts : The earliest known large corpus of ancient Egyptian funerary texts, inscribed in royal pyramids of the Old Kingdom. They provide an earlier textual tradition from which later funerary compositions developed.
Egyptian papyrus : A writing material made from the pith of the papyrus plant, widely used in ancient Egypt. Papyrus rolls were a common surface for copying funerary spells.
Duat : The hidden realm through which the dead traveled and where divine powers and dangers shaped the afterlife. Many spells prepare the deceased to pass through its regions and hazards.
Weighing of the Heart : An ancient Egyptian judgment scene in which the deceased's heart is weighed against the feather of Ma'at. Spell 125 presents this test as the decisive measure of moral fitness.
Coffin Texts : Funerary spells written mainly on coffins during Egypt's Middle Kingdom. They preserve many compositions that later appeared in Book of the Dead manuscripts.
Hieroglyphs : A writing system that uses pictorial signs to represent sounds, words, and grammatical elements. Scribes used hieroglyphic writing for many spells and captions in illustrated copies.
Ma'at : The Egyptian principle of truth, justice, and cosmic order, personified as a goddess. The deceased had to meet its moral standard at judgment.
Negative Confession : A declaration in which the deceased denies committing specified wrongs before divine judges. In Spell 125, these denials accompany the judgment before Osiris.
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