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51-695: Unlike the later Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead , the Pyramid Texts were reserved only for the pharaoh and were not illustrated. The use and occurrence of Pyramid Texts changed between the Old, Middle , and New Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt. During the Old Kingdom (2686 BCE – 2181 BCE), Pyramid Texts could be found in the pyramids of kings as well as three queens, named Wedjebten , Neith , and Iput . During

102-405: A downward sloping corridor, followed by a 'corridor-chamber' with three granite portcullises that guarded the entrance into the horizontal passage. The horizontal passage ends at the antechamber of the substructure and is guarded by a fourth granite portcullis. The antechamber connects to two further rooms, a room with three recesses for holding statues – called the serdab – to the east, and

153-450: A few additional ways. Like those of the kings, the use of both the first and third person is present in these pyramid texts. Neith's name is used throughout the texts to make them more personal. Many of the pronouns used throughout her pyramid texts are male, indicative of the parallels between the texts of the kings and queens, but a few female pronouns can be found. The texts also contain spells and utterances that are meant to be read by both

204-467: A new target audience of common people. Coffin texts are dated back to 2100 BCE. Ordinary Egyptians who could afford a coffin had access to these funerary spells and the pharaoh no longer had exclusive rights to an afterlife. As the modern name of this collection of some 1,185 spells implies, they were mostly inscribed on Middle Kingdom coffins. They were also sometimes written on tomb walls, stelae , canopic chests , papyri and mummy masks . Due to

255-679: A site in South Saqqara, a hill that had been mapped by the Prussian Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius in 1842, for his first archaeological dig. There, Maspero found the ruins of a large structure, which he concluded must be the pyramid of Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty . During the excavations he was able to gain access to the subterranean rooms, and discovered that the walls of the structure were covered in hieroglyphic text. Maspero contacted

306-634: A sow eating her offspring so also is the King as the dawn sun. Utterance 217 describes the King in stellar form as being "swallowed up" at dawn with the other stars. The Cannibal Hymn represents a discrete episode (Utterances 273–274) in the anthology of ritual texts that make up the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom period. Appearing first in the Pyramid of Unas at the end of the Fifth Dynasty ,

357-1085: A woman named Ankh who lived during the reign of the nomarch Ahanakht I. Audran Labrousse Look for Audran Labrousse on one of Misplaced Pages's sister projects : [REDACTED] Wiktionary (dictionary) [REDACTED] Wikibooks (textbooks) [REDACTED] Wikiquote (quotations) [REDACTED] Wikisource (library) [REDACTED] Wikiversity (learning resources) [REDACTED] Commons (media) [REDACTED] Wikivoyage (travel guide) [REDACTED] Wikinews (news source) [REDACTED] Wikidata (linked database) [REDACTED] Wikispecies (species directory) Misplaced Pages does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for Audran Labrousse in Misplaced Pages to check for alternative titles or spellings. You need to log in or create an account and be autoconfirmed to create new articles. Alternatively, you can use

408-594: Is considered to be the standard version of the texts. Samuel A. B. Mercer published a translation into English of Sethe's work in 1952. British Egyptologist Raymond O. Faulkner presented the texts in English in 1969 in The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts . Between 1926 and 1932, Gustave Jéquier conducted the first systematic investigations of Pepi II and his wives' pyramids – Neith , Iput II , and Wedjebetni . Jéquier also conducted

459-636: Is offered to everyone, and the deceased is even referred to as "the Osiris-[name]." This subterranean realm is described as being filled with threatening beings, traps, and snares with which the deceased must contend. The spells in the Coffin Texts allow the deceased to protect themselves against these dangers and "dying a second death ". A new theme recorded in the coffin texts is the notion that all people will be judged by Osiris and his council according to their deeds in life. The texts allude to

510-494: Is spoken by the deceased, who replies: I shall sail rightly in my bark, I am lord of eternity in the crossing of the sky. I am not afraid in my limbs, for Hu and Hike overthrow for me that evil being. I shall see light-land, I shall dwell in it ... Make way for me, that I may see Nun and Amun ! For I am that Akh who passes by the guards ... I am equipped and effective in opening his portal! As for any person who knows this spell, he will be like Re in

561-708: The Coffin Texts as Spell 573. It was dropped by the time the Book of the Dead was being copied. Coffin Texts The Coffin Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary spells written on coffins beginning in the First Intermediate Period . They are partially derived from the earlier Pyramid Texts , reserved for royal use only, but contain substantial new material related to everyday desires, indicating

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612-540: The Kher-Heb (the chief lector priest), along with assistants, opening the eyes and mouth of the dead while reciting prayers and spells. Mourners were encouraged to cry out as special instruments were used to cut holes in the mouth. After the ceremony was complete, it was believed that the dead could eat, speak, breathe, and see in the afterlife. The Egyptian pyramids are made up of various corridors, tunnels, and rooms, each of which have differing significance and use during

663-471: The article wizard to submit a draft for review, or request a new article . Search for " Audran Labrousse " in existing articles. Look for pages within Misplaced Pages that link to this title . Other reasons this message may be displayed: If a page was recently created here, it may not be visible yet because of a delay in updating the database; wait a few minutes or try the purge function . Titles on Misplaced Pages are case sensitive except for

714-511: The ba and akh and so on. In addition there are descriptions of the land of the dead , its landscape and inhabitants. These include the Sekhet Hotep (Field of offerings or peace), the paths of Rostau and the abode of Osiris. Coffin text 1130 is a speech by the sun god Ra , who says: Hail in peace! I repeat to you the good deeds which my own heart did for me from within the serpent-coil, in order to silence strife ... I made

765-695: The pyramid of Merenre I , Pepi I 's successor. In it, Maspero discovered the same hieroglyphic text on the walls he had found in Pepi ;I's pyramid, and the mummy of a man in the sarcophagus of the burial chamber. This time, he visited Mariette personally, who again rejected the findings, saying on his deathbed that "[i]n thirty years of Egyptian excavations I have never seen a pyramid whose underground rooms had hieroglyphs written on their walls." Throughout 1881, Maspero continued to direct investigations of other sites in Saqqara, and more texts were found in each of

816-456: The 'director of the excavations' in Egypt, Auguste Mariette , to inform him of the discovery. Mariette concluded that the structure must be a mastaba , as no writing had previously been discovered in a pyramid. Maspero continued his excavations at a second structure, around one kilometre (0.62 mi) south-west of the first, in search of more evidence. This second structure was determined to be

867-557: The Cannibal Hymn preserves an early royal butchery ritual in which the deceased king – assisted by the god Shezmu – slaughters, cooks and eats the gods as sacrificial bulls, thereby incorporating in himself their divine powers in order that he might negotiate his passage into the Afterlife and guarantee his transformation as a celestial divinity ruling in the heavens. The style and format of the Cannibal Hymn are characteristic of

918-669: The Middle Kingdom (2055 BCE – 1650 BCE), Pyramid Texts were not written in the pyramids of the pharaohs, but the traditions of the pyramid spells continued to be practiced. In the New Kingdom (1550 BCE – 1070 BCE), Pyramid Texts were found on tombs of officials. French archaeologist and Egyptologist Gaston Maspero , director of the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo , arrived in Egypt in 1880. He chose

969-408: The Old Kingdom. It had a core built six steps high from roughly dressed limestone , encased in a layer of carefully cut fine white limestone. It had a base length of 57.75 m (189 ft) with an incline of 56° which gave the pyramid a height of 43 m (141 ft). The substructure was accessed through an entrance in the pavement of a chapel on the north face of the pyramid. The entry led into

1020-730: The Pharaoh himself. Kurt Sethe's first edition of the pyramid texts contained 714 distinct spells. Later additional spells were discovered, for a total of 759. No single edition includes all recorded spells. The following example of a spell comes from the pyramid of Unas. It was to be recited in the South Side Burial Chamber and Passage, and it was the Invocation to New Life. Utterance 213: Ho, Unis ! You have not gone away dead: you have gone away alive. Sit on Osiris 's chair, with your baton in your arm, and govern

1071-454: The Pyramid Texts were primarily concerned with enabling the transformation of the deceased into an akh (where those judged worthy could mix with the gods). The spells of the Pyramid Texts are divided into two broad categories: Sacerdotal texts and Personal texts. The sacerdotal texts are ritual in nature, and were conducted by the lector priest addressing the deceased in the second person. They consist of offering spells, short spells recited in

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1122-437: The Pyramid Texts. Unas' sarcophagus was left without inscription. The king's royal titulary did not appear on the walls surrounding it, as it does in later pyramids. The west gable of the burial chamber is inscribed with protective spells; in later pyramids the gable was used for texts commending the king to Nut , and, from Pepi I onwards, also for Sakhu, or 'glorifications', for the transformation into an Akh. The other walls of

1173-456: The being of every god, Who eats their entrails When they come, their bodies full of magic From the Isle of Flame... But as the same spell also declares: May I be with you, you gods; May you be with me, you gods. May I live with you, you gods; May you live with me, you gods. I love you, you gods; May you love me, you gods. The Cannibal Hymn later reappeared in

1224-580: The burial and ritual processes. Texts were written and recited by priests in a very particular order, often starting in the Valley Temple and finishing in the Coffin or Pyramid Room. The variety of offerings and rituals were also most likely recited in a particular order. The Valley Temple often contained an offering shrine, where rituals would be recited. Pyramid texts were found not only in the tombs of kings, but those of queens as well. Queen Neith, who

1275-563: The burial chamber are primarily dedicated to ritual texts. The north wall, along with the northern part of the east wall and passage, is dedicated to the Offering Ritual. Spatial considerations required that part of the ritual be inscribed on other walls, and likely explains the omission of the Insignia Ritual altogether from the pyramid. The Offering Ritual, from the 'initial libation' to the 'dedication of offerings', occupies

1326-459: The burial chamber with the ruler's sarcophagus to the west. The roofs of both the antechamber and burial chamber were gabled . With the exception of the walls immediately surrounding the sarcophagus, which were lined with alabaster and painted to resemble reed mats with a wood-frame enclosure, the remaining walls of the antechamber, burial chamber, and a section of the horizontal passage were covered with vertical columns of hieroglyphs that make up

1377-576: The eastern sky, like Osiris in the netherworld . He will go down to the circle of fire, without the flame touching him ever! A few coffins from the Middle Egyptian necropolis of el-Bersheh ( Deir El Bersha ) contain unique graphical representations of the realm of the afterlife, along with spells related to the journey of the deceased through the Duat. This collection, called the Book of Two Ways ,

1428-429: The excavations of Qakare Ibi 's pyramid. He later published the complete corpus of texts found in these five pyramids. Since 1958, expeditions under the directions of Jean-Philippe Lauer , Jean Sainte-Fare Garnot , and Jean Leclant have undertaken a major restoration project of the pyramids belonging to Teti, Pepi I, and Merenre I, as well as the pyramid of Unas. By 1999, the pyramid of Pepi had been opened to

1479-401: The four winds, that every man might breathe in his time ... I made the great inundation, that the humble might benefit by it like the great ... I made every man like his fellow; and I did not command that they do wrong. It is their hearts which disobey what I have said ... I have created the gods from my sweat, and the people from the tears of my eye. Coffin text 1031

1530-458: The gods to help, even threatening them if they did not comply. It was common for the pyramid texts to be written in the first person, but not uncommon for texts to be later changed to the third person. Often this depended on who was reciting the texts and who they were recited for. Many of the texts include accomplishments of the pharaoh as well as the things they did for the Egyptian people during

1581-413: The gods. Examples of these rituals are the opening of the mouth ceremony , offering rituals, and insignia ritual. Both monetary and prayer-based offerings were made in the pyramids and were written in the pyramid texts in hopes of getting the pharaoh to a desirable afterlife. Rituals such as the opening of the mouth and eye ceremony were very important for the Pharaoh in the afterlife. This ceremony involved

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1632-476: The layout of the texts corresponded to similar walls and locations as those of the kings. For example, the Resurrection Ritual is found on the east end of the south wall. Due to the fact that the pyramid of Neith did not contain an antechamber, many of the spells normally written there were also written on the south wall. The texts of Queen Neith were similar and different from those of the kings in

1683-528: The limited writing surfaces of some of these objects, the spells were often abbreviated, giving rise to long and short versions, some of which were later copied in the Book of the Dead . In contrast to the Pyramid Texts which focus on the celestial realm , the coffin texts emphasize the subterranean elements of the afterlife ruled by the deity Osiris , in a place called the Duat . An Osirian afterlife

1734-423: The living; with your water lily scepter in your arm, and govern those of the inaccessible places. Your lower arms are of Atum , your upper arms of Atum, your belly of Atum, your back of Atum, your rear of Atum, your legs of Atum, your face of Anubis . Horus 's mounds shall serve you; Seth 's mounds shall serve you. The various pyramid texts often contained writings of rituals and offerings to

1785-509: The north wall; it is arrayed into three horizontal registers. The set up and layout of the Unas pyramid were replicated and expanded on for future pyramids. The causeway ran 750 meters long and is still in good condition, unlike many causeways found in similar ancient Egyptian pyramids. In the pyramid of Unas, the ritual texts could be found in the underlying supporting structure. The antechamber and corridor contained texts and spells personalized to

1836-426: The oldest, and are the most difficult to interpret. These utterances were meant to be chanted by those who were reciting them. They contained many verbs such as "fly" and "leap", depicting the actions taken by the pharaohs to get to the afterlife. The spells delineate all of the ways the pharaoh could travel, including the use of ramps, stairs, ladders and, most importantly, flying. The spells could also be used to call

1887-406: The oral-recitational poetry of pharaonic Egypt, marked by allusive metaphor and the exploitation of wordplay and homophony in its verbal recreation of a butchery ritual. Apart from the burial of Unas , only the Pyramid of Teti displays the Cannibal Hymn. A god who lives on his fathers, who feeds on his mothers... Unas is the bull of heaven Who rages in his heart, Who lives on

1938-400: The pharaoh to reach the heavens, one of which is by climbing a ladder. In utterance 304 the king says: Hail, daughter of Anubis , above the hatches of heaven, Comrade of Thoth , above the ladder's rails, Open Unas 's path, let Unas pass! Another way is by ferry. If the boatman refuses to take him, the king has other plans: If you fail to ferry Unas, He will leap and sit on

1989-626: The presentation of an offering, and recitations which are predominantly instructional. These texts appear in the Offering and Insignia Rituals, the Resurrection Ritual, and in the four pyramids containing the Morning Ritual. The writing in these texts (Dramatic Texts) suggests the formulation of these texts may have occurred around the time of the Second and Third dynasties. The remaining texts are personal, and are broadly concerned with guiding

2040-458: The public. Debris was cleared away from the pyramid, while research continued under the direction of Audran Labrousse  [ fr ] . The corpus of pyramid texts in Pepi I's pyramid were published in 2001. In 2010, more such texts were discovered in Behenu 's tomb. To date, Pyramid Texts have been discovered in the pyramids of these pharaohs and queens: The spells, or utterances, of

2091-690: The pyramids of Unas , Teti , and Pepi II . Maspero began publishing his findings in the Recueil des Travaux from 1882 and continued to be involved until 1886 in the excavations of the pyramid in which the texts had been found. Maspero published the first corpora of the text in 1894 in French under the title Les inscriptions des pyramides de Saqqarah . Translations were made by German Egyptologist Kurt Heinrich Sethe to German in 1908–1910 in Die altägyptischen Pyramidentexte . The concordance that Sethe published

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2142-582: The spirit herself as well as others addressing her. After death, the king must first rise from his tomb. Utterance 373 describes: Oho! Oho! Rise up, O Teti ! Take your head, collect your bones, Gather your limbs, shake the earth from your flesh! Take your bread that rots not, your beer that sours not, Stand at the gates that bar the common people! The gatekeeper comes out to you, he grasps your hand, Takes you into heaven, to your father Geb . He rejoices at your coming, gives you his hands, Kisses you, caresses you, Sets you before

2193-473: The spirit out of the tomb, and into new life. They consist of provisioning, transition, and apotropaic – or protective – texts. The provisioning texts deal with the deceased taking command of his own food-supply, and demanding nourishment from the gods. One example of these texts is the king's response in Unas' pyramid. The transition texts – otherwise known as the Sakhu or Glorifications – are predominantly about

2244-419: The spirits, the imperishable stars... The hidden ones worship you, The great ones surround you, The watchers wait on you, Barley is threshed for you, Emmer is reaped for you, Your monthly feasts are made with it, Your half-month feasts are made with it, As ordered done for you by Geb, your father, Rise up, O Teti, you shall not die! The texts then describe several ways for

2295-472: The texts in the Old Kingdom. Copies of all but a single spell, PT 200, inscribed in the pyramid appeared throughout the Middle Kingdom and later, including a near-complete replica of the texts inscribed in the tomb of the 12th-Dynasty High Priest Senwosretankh at El-Lisht . Unas' pyramid , situated between the pyramids of Djoser and Sekhemkhet in North Saqqara, was the smallest of those built in

2346-484: The time of their rule. These texts were used to both guide the pharaohs to the afterlife, but also to inform and assure the living that the soul made it to its final destination. The texts first appeared in the pyramid of the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, that belonging to Unas . A total of 283 spells appear on the subterranean walls of Unas' pyramid. These spells are the smallest and best-preserved corpus of

2397-474: The transformation of the deceased into an Akh, and their ascent, mirroring the motion of the gods, into the sky. These texts form the largest part of the corpus, and are dominated by the youngest texts composed in the Fifth and possibly Sixth dynasties. Apotropaic texts consist of short protective spells for warding off threats to the body and tomb. Due to the archaic style of writing, these texts are considered to be

2448-420: The use of a balance , which became the pivotal moment of judgment in the later Book of the Dead . The texts address common fears of the living, such as having to do manual labor, with spells to allow the deceased to avoid these unpleasant tasks. They combine ritual actions intended as protection, expressions of aspiration for a blessed existence after death and of the transformations and transmigrations of

2499-514: The wing of Thoth, Then he will ferry Unas to that side! Utterances 273 and 274 are sometimes known as the "Cannibal Hymn", because it seems to be describing the king hunting and eating parts of the gods: however, as Renouf pointed out when it was first published: As has been observed, the spell is echoing how the Goddess Nut (as the Sky) causing the stars to disappear at dawn is likened to

2550-494: Was the first example of an Ancient Egyptian map of the underworld. The Book of Two Ways is a precursor to the New Kingdom books of the underworld as well as the Book of the Dead, in which descriptions of the routes through the afterlife are a persistent theme. The two ways depicted are the land and water routes, separated by a lake of fire, that lead to Rostau and the abode of Osiris. The oldest copy currently known belonged to

2601-428: Was the wife of Pepi II, is one of three queens of the 6th dynasty whose tomb contains pyramid texts. The pyramids of the other two queens (both also thought to be wives of Pepi II), Iput II and Wedjebetni, also contained tombs inscribed with texts. Those of Neith have been kept in much better condition. Compared to the tombs of the kings, the layout and structure of those that belonged to these queens were much simpler. But

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