Experts Uncover Strange New Egyptian Artifact, Then The History-Altering Reality Hits Them

It seemed like just another day for researchers at Los Angeles’ Getty Research Institute. But then one individual stumbled across a set of images that would see the team collaborating with experts on the other side of the world. They rapidly became part of a shared investigation into the same strange puzzle – and it all focused on the death cults of Ancient Egypt.

Preserving visual art

The experts of the Getty Research Institute (GRI) concern themselves with visual art, which they seek to both preserve and promote to the public. The organization possesses both physical and digital archives, which are used for research as well as exhibitions. By investigating and saving these visual works, the GRI celebrates their cultural value.

Stand-out image

It was thanks to the GRI’s digital archive that some of its historians managed to become involved in this ancient Egyptian mystery. Basically, they were looking through a set of pictures from an online database managed by a museum in New Zealand. One image in particular really jumped out at them, so they decided to do some digging.

Oddly familiar

The image from the New Zealand museum was of an ancient artifact with Egyptian text spread across it. You might think that that doesn’t sound particularly notable, except this specific piece kind of seemed familiar to the Getty researchers. In fact, they’d definitely seen something just like it before. But where?

A matching piece

After taking a dive into their own archives at the GRI, the researchers realized something. They had access to an artifact that appeared to fit perfectly together with the one from New Zealand. They were both strips of fabric from an ancient mummy and adorned with text. What did it all mean, though? Why did two artifacts which lay in different corners of the world match one another so well?

Text from the Book of the Dead

The text on both these fragments were hieroglyphics from the Book of the Dead, a fascinating collection of Ancient Egyptian writings which continue to draw people’s interest even today. Basically, the work sheds light on how people from that ancient civilization thought about death. It’s all very revealing about their culture.

Fantastical imagery

The Book of the Dead is full of vivid and fantastical imagery and tales that can make for jarring reading today. In one now-famous afterlife morality test, a heart is weighed on a scale against a single feather. Meanwhile in another section there’s mention of a god made of body parts from various creatures obliterating somebody’s soul. It’s a collection of tales both outlandishly alien and yet compelling to the modern reader.

Enduring fascination

The fact that these images are so thoroughly memorable, though, probably goes some way to explaining why we’re still fascinated with the book today. It even appears in movies, such as the 1999 blockbuster The Mummy. The filmmakers, of course, took a little creative license with the way they presented the book in this flick.

Not exactly a book

Directly translated from its original language, the title of the Book of the Dead more accurately reads as “The Chapters/Book of Going Forth By Day.” But the word “book” in this context may be misleading: for starters, you might be imagining that a single author wrote it. Yet actually the tome was never intended to be a single work. Written over many years with different contributors, the compilation is a relatively modern phenomenon.

Karl Richard Lepsius

The Book of the Dead can trace its modern history back to 1842 and a German historian named Karl Richard Lepsius. It was Lepsius who put order on the texts and compiled them in a way that the general public could follow. Thanks to him, people’s understanding of Ancient Egypt and its people was transfigured.

The writings are everywhere

In ancient times, the texts making up the Book of the Dead were written by specialists. As such, the quality of the writing was obviously contingent on each individual’s own talent. These people would inscribe the hieroglyphics of the book on papyrus scrolls, as well as on walls and wrappings used in the mummification process. They can even be seen inside the mask of Tutankhamun.

A manual for the deceased

For hundreds of years, experts presumed that the Book of the Dead was simply a collection of religious stories. But with more modern analysis, it became clear that these writings weren’t really meant for the living. Rather, they were a manual for the deceased, full of spells intended to help those who’d died to find their course in the next life.

Compiling the book

It was the work of Lepsius that really made this clear. Basically, the way he compiled the Book of the Dead allowed it to be read in a more full and coherent way. It’s a legacy that is still felt today, as contemporary historians try to make sense of the texts.

Originally meant for royalty

The Book of the Dead is the amalgamation of multiple texts that evolved over the course of Ancient Egyptian history. The writings were originally only available to the royals of the civilization, meaning that only the highest elites could access its message. Later, though, views shifted and affluent people outside of royalty gained access to the content.

Dealing with the afterlife

Over time, more and more people were permitted access to the texts of the Book of the Dead. This meant that anyone who was able to get their hands on it was then equipped with the knowledge of how to deal with the afterlife. The stories it contained became a pivotal part of Ancient Egyptian culture.

Strange customs

When a person in Ancient Egypt died, a priest would read aloud from the Book of the Dead in a ceremony. Then, ritualistic practices would be performed for the sake of preparing the deceased for the next life. Looking back today, these practices may seem quite strange. One such custom, for example, was designed to reestablish the dead person’s senses.

Positive spin

Although this might sound a little creepy and harrowing to us today, the Ancient Egyptians actually viewed it in a very positive light. Chapter nine of the Book of the Dead reads, “I have opened up every path which is in the sky and which is on Earth, for I am the well-beloved son of my father Osiris. I am noble, I am a spirit, I am equipped; O all you gods and all you spirits, prepare a path for me.”

Forty deities

The aforementioned Osiris is a reference to a deity linked to the notion of resurrection. Another important god in the Book of the Dead is Re, who is linked to the Sun. These two are perhaps the most important deities in the book, but more than 40 others are also mentioned throughout. As for the way that the story in the book is structured, we can say that it’s broken up into four parts.

Afterlife journey

In the first section of the story, the dead person finds themselves in the Underworld, where they have reclaimed their living senses and abilities. Next, they are “resurrected,” meaning that they unite with Re the Sun god. Sunrise, then, represents the start of the deceased’s resurrection. The dead person then tracks across the sky in tandem with the Sun, before returning to the Underworld – at sunset – to face judgement by numerous deities. Then, if they’ve made it through all these trials unscathed, they join the deities.

Critical challenges

Each of the phases described in the Book of the Dead are complicated by a set of challenges. The dead person is required to say the right things at the right time, or they will fail their tests. That’s why the Book of the Dead is so important, because it contains the information that these people need to make it through the tasks.

The ka

The Book of the Dead lays bare the Ancient Egyptians’ beliefs about the afterlife, and crucially it also helps us to understand some of their funerary practices they undertook because of them. One section of the book describes a facet of the soul known as the ka, which to survive, they believed, required a physical part of the dead body to endure.

Preserving the body

This description of the ka goes some way to explaining why the Ancient Egyptians engaged in the process of mummification. Preserving parts of the physical body meant a person’s ka could also survive. Additionally, there were a whole host of other rituals that were designed to sustain body parts.

Open to interpretation

The Book of the Dead was clearly really important to Ancient Egyptians, so it’s a central source of information for those concerned with studying their history today. Of course, the text is very much open to interpretation and some historians read it differently to others. The way we understand this ancient book, then, is constantly in flux.

Noteworthy discovery

That’s why any new discoveries that might shed light on the Book of the Dead are so exciting to Egyptologists. So, when the people over at the GRI realized that they were on to something that might tell them something about the text, it was noteworthy. But what had they discovered?

Once joined

Basically, the Getty researchers were looking through an image database from the Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury. They noted that the museum had a mummy wrapping that looked exactly like one in their own collection in L.A. In fact, it soon became clear that the two artifacts had once been joined together.

Piecing together history

It was clear to see that the two wrappings dovetailed, because they were both covered in matching hieroglyphics from the Book of the Dead. As the University of Canterbury’s Professor Alison Griffith remarked in a statement, “There is a small gap between the two fragments; however, the scene makes sense, the incantation makes sense, and the text makes it spot on. It is just amazing to piece fragments together remotely.”

Preparing for the other side

Griffith went on to elaborate on Ancient Egyptian practices in relation to death. She said, “Egyptian belief was that the deceased needed worldly things on their journey to and in the afterlife. So the art in pyramids and tombs is not art as such, it’s really about scenes of offerings, supplies, servants and other things you need on the other side.”

Vivid scenes

When pieced together, the two wrappings depict some pretty vivid scenes. In one part, they show butchers carving a bull. In another we can see some people holding furniture, while there’s also the image of a coffin-bearing vessel nested between two goddesses. The entire tableau is very closely linked with the afterlife.

Talented scribe

During the earlier stages of Ancient Egyptian civilization, such scenes would have been inscribed on walls inside a tomb. But in time these things came to be written and drawn on papyrus scrolls and mummy wrappings, as in this case. But as Griffith pointed out, “It is hard to write on material; you need a quill and a steady hand, and this person has done an amazing job.”

A perfect match

When digitally combined, the two wrappings in L.A. and New Zealand make one long piece. But this is just one such wrapping among many that were once used to mummify a male by the name of Petosiris. At least, that’s the belief of Dr. Foy Scalf of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.

Just one piece of many

In a statement regarding the two wrappings, Dr. Scalf laid out his thoughts as to their provenance. He explained, “Your linen fragment is just one small piece of a set of bandages that were torn away from the remains of a man named Petosiris (whose mother was Tetosiris). Fragments of these pieces are now spread around the world, in both institutional and private collections.”

The issue of ethics

Dr. Scalf was sympathetic to Petosiris, who couldn’t possibly have imagined the fate that awaited his earthly remains. The expert reflected, “It is an unfortunate fate for Petosiris, who took such care and expense for his burial. And, of course, it raises all sorts of ethical issues about the origins of these collections and our continued collecting practices.”

More out there

It isn’t entirely clear how the sections of wrapping came to be separated and ended up on different sides of the world. But the question could be complicated even further, as another segment has potentially been noted in an Australian university’s collection. Who knows how many other bits of the wrapping are out there?

Obscure procurement

We at least know something about the piece of wrapping now held at the University of Canterbury, though the one at the GRI is more obscure. As for the former, though, we know that it arrived at the New Zealand university during the early 1970s, after a professor from the institution bought it at an auction in London. Before that, we know that it was owned by a prominent collector named Thomas Phillips, who in turn owned it after a British diplomat posted in Egypt, Charles Murray.

Passing through many hands

The segment of mummy wrapping, then, has passed through many hands over the years. At some point in time, it was taken from its country of origin and began a new life being passed down through different owners in faraway lands. This is perhaps more common than historians would like, as it certainly complicates their job.

Dedicating their career

Trying to trace artifacts back in time can be a difficult and time-consuming task for historians. In fact, as Professor Griffith explained in her statement, there are people that dedicate their whole careers towards such an endeavor. As she put it, “That is a whole sub-field of museum studies around the world.”

Delicate material

As for the fragment itself, it’s obviously very delicate and needs to be preserved and protected. It’s therefore held in storage, though students and researchers at the University of Canterbury are able to get to it. For people interested in the world of Ancient Egypt, that must represent a tantalizing prospect.

Finally reunited

As for the digital combination of the fragments from the University of Canterbury and the GRI, the ramifications could be significant. Now that the two pieces can be seen together as one, it will provide researchers with the opportunity to develop a more rounded understanding of what it means. It may help to hone translations and otherwise contextualize the hieroglyphics.

Digital technology is key

Terri Elder is the curator of New Zealand’s Teece Museum, where the larger fragment sits, and she’s reflected in a statement about how important digital technology has proven to be in this saga. She said, “This shows how valuable our Logie Collection is for teaching and research as we are still able to make new discoveries about these objects. It also shows how valuable it has been to put our collection online.”

Enhancing our understanding

By digitally joining the two pieces of wrapping together, experts are enhancing their understanding of Ancient Egyptian beliefs and practices. The two pieces once meant something as separate artifacts, but now as one they mean something different. As Elder put it, “The story, like the shroud, is being slowly pieced together.”