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Sedment: Book of the Dead of Khnumemheb, 19th Dynasty

(click on the images for a larger picture)

The upper row of photographs shows the scene of the Judgment of the Dead (Book of the Dead Chapter 125). In the second group of photographs are the fragments from the scene in which the deceased ploughs the fields in the underworld (Chapter 110). The image beneath is more unexpected, with the sun-god Ra in his boat sailing over the evil serpent Aapep: such a scene is more reminiscent of depictions of the underworld in the tombs of the kings in the New Kingdom. An additional detail of interest in this scene is the depiction of a man on the prow of the sun boat, identified by the hieroglyphs as Ramose; the papyrus of Khnumemheb appears to belong to a lesser member of his family or staff - the inclusion of Ramose in the papyrus is exceptional among funerary papyri.


The fragment below is of finer draughtsmanship, raising doubts over whether it belongs to the same papyrus. It may be a stray fragment from the Book of the Dead of Ramose, found by Petrie in fragmentary condition in the tomb, and preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.


 

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