A book that has always evoked mystery. It evoked thoughts of skillful traps and treasures of the pharaohs, spells. We are talking about the Book of the Dead, discovered in Saqqara.
Egyptologists have published for the first time a picture of a 16-meter scroll of the Book of the Dead. They are decorated with illustrations of ancient gods and scenes of otherworldly life. But that's not all, they additionally published the text of the document.
It took a whole team of scientists to spin the scroll. After all, the very respectable age of the book did not give the right to make a mistake when opening it. It was written in black and red ink, and the quality of the inscription indicated that the scroll was created by a professional.
The papyrus was found in the coffin of a man named Ahmose. Moreover, this name is mentioned about 260 times. The man lived approximately in 300 BC, at the beginning of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a dynasty of pharaohs descended from one of the commanders of Alexander the Great.
The text was supplemented by illustrations. One of them depicted Osiris, the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld. According to Egyptian mythology, he regained life after death and the ancient Egyptians hoped that this would also happen to them in the afterlife.
Another interesting illustration depicting spouses, which could be Ahmose and his wife. Not much is known about Ahmose, but he was wealthy enough to have an elaborate copy of the Book of the Dead made for himself.
There are also images of boats that could sail in the underworld.
It remains to wait for further statements about the find of Egyptian archaeologists. For some reason, there is a strong confidence that they will be no less interesting.
Source: rbc.ua
