Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts: Encyclopedia - Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts

The literature that make up the Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts are a collection of religious documents that were used in Ancient Egypt, usually to help the spirit of the concerned person to be preserved in the afterlife.

They evolved over time, beginning with the Pyramid Texts in the Old Kingdom, which were the concern only of royal burials, through the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom, the several books in the New Kingdom and later times.

With passing time access to these documents was extended to the noble classes, then the common (at least those that could afford ritual burials) population.

These texts are as follows (in more or less historical order) –

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts - Old Kingdom

• Pyramid Texts

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts - Middle Kingdom

• Coffin Texts

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts - New Kingdom

• Book of the Dead
• Amduat
• Spell of the Twelve Caves
• The Book of Gates
• Book of the Netherworld
• Book of Caverns
• Book of the Earth
• Litany of Re

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts - Late New Kingdom

• Books of the Sky
  • Book of Nut
  • Book of the Day
  • Book of the Night
• Book of the Heavenly Cow

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts - Late Period

• Books of Breathing

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts - Ptolemaic

• Book of Tranversing Eternity

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts - External References

• Hornung, E (trans. Lorton, D.) The Ancient Egyption Books of the Afterlife, 1999, Cornell University Press, New York

Category: Ancient Egyptian literature

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki