THREE EGYPTIAN PAPYRUS FRAGMENTS

LATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXVI-XXX, CIRCA 664-332 B.C.

Details

THREE EGYPTIAN PAPYRUS FRAGMENTS
LATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXVI-XXX, CIRCA 664-332 B.C.
Depicting a vignette from Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, the Weighing of the Heart, showing the deceased offering incense to two uraei, below two registers with procession of funerary deities, and below with Anubis under the scale, the Devourer and Thoth recording the result of the weighing, 9½ in. (24 cm.) high; a funerary magical papyrus fragment, Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty XXI, circa 1069-945 B.C., with 38 columns of hieroglyphic inscriptions for the son of Horkheby, justified, begotten of the Lady of the House Djed-Bastet-Iwesankh, 16 in. (40.8 cm.) wide; and an Egyptian linen mummy wrapping, Ptolemaic Period, circa 332-30 B.C., with four scenes of the deceased in a priestly dress presenting altars to deities holding knives and sceptres, below four columns of hieratic text from Chapter 147 of the Book of the Dead, the spell of Gates, with mention of gates four to seven, 10 in. (25.5 cm.) long (3)

Provenance

Private collection, UK, since the 1960s; thence by descent to the present owner.

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Lot Essay

Ink and typed inscribed label on items 2 and 3.

Usually, texts are either magical or funerary, as they have different functions: one protecting the person during life, the other in the afterlife, which makes the funerary magical text (item two) quite rare. But it also makes it difficult to translate, like most magical texts. The mention of the Jackal of Upper Egypt can also be found in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Text and the Middle Kingdom Coffin Text, two very important funerary texts that were used again in private tombs from the end of the Third Intermediate Period to the Late Period.

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