The oldest form or edition of the Book of the Dead as we have got it supplies no information some as to the period when it was compiled, but a copy of the conventional text inscribed upon a coffin oi Menthu-hetep, a queen of the 11th dynasty,about B.C. 2500, made by the late Sir J. G. Wilkinson, informs us that the chapter which, reported to the arrangement of Lepsius, bears the number LXIV., was broken in the reign of Hesep-ti,the 5th king of the 1st dynasty, about B.C. 4266. On this coffin are two re-create of the chapter, the one instantly following the other. In the rubric to the first the name of the king during whose reign the chapter is said to have been "found" is given as Menthu-hetep, which, as Goodwin first pointed out,is a mistake for Men-kau-Ra, the fourth king of the 4th dynasty, about B.C. 3633, but in the rubric to the second the kings name is given as Hesep-ti. Thus it comes out that in the period of the 11th dynasty it was considered that the chapter might instead be as old as the time of the 1st dynasty. Further, it is given to Hesep-ti in papyri of the 21st dynasty, a period when certain attention was paid to the history of the Book of the Dead; and it thus comes out that the Egyptians of the Middle Empire considered the chapter to date from the more such.
The gloss on the coffin of Queen Menthu-hetep, which imputes the chapter to Hesep-ti, states that "this chapter was found in the foundations beneath the lzennu boat by the foreman of the builders in the time o the king of the North and South, Hesep-ti, triumphant", the Nebseni papyrus says that this chapter wa; discovered in the city of Khemennu (Hermopolis) on a block of ironstone written in letters of lapis-lazuli, deep the feet of the god"; and the Turin papyrus (26th dynasty or later) adds that the name of the viewfinder was Heru-ta-ta-f, the son of Khufu or Cheops, the second king of the IVth dynasty, about B.C. 3733, who was at the time making a tour of inspection of the temples. Birch and Naville view the chapter one of the oldest in the Book of the Dead; the fonner basing his view on the rubric and the latter upon the prove derived from the messages and character of the text, but Maspero, while taking the great age of the chapter, does not attach any very great importance to the rubric as fixing any take date for its composition. Of Herutataf the finder of the block of stone, we know from later texts that he was taken to be a leamed man, and that his language was only with difficultness to be understood, and we also know the prominent part which he took as a recognized man of letters in bringing back the court of his father Khufu the sage Tetteta. It is then not improbable that Herutatafs character for learning may have advised the connection of his name with the chapter, and perchance as its literary reviser, at all cases as early as the period of the Middle Empire tradition related him with it.
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The gloss on the coffin of Queen Menthu-hetep, which imputes the chapter to Hesep-ti, states that "this chapter was found in the foundations beneath the lzennu boat by the foreman of the builders in the time o the king of the North and South, Hesep-ti, triumphant", the Nebseni papyrus says that this chapter wa; discovered in the city of Khemennu (Hermopolis) on a block of ironstone written in letters of lapis-lazuli, deep the feet of the god"; and the Turin papyrus (26th dynasty or later) adds that the name of the viewfinder was Heru-ta-ta-f, the son of Khufu or Cheops, the second king of the IVth dynasty, about B.C. 3733, who was at the time making a tour of inspection of the temples. Birch and Naville view the chapter one of the oldest in the Book of the Dead; the fonner basing his view on the rubric and the latter upon the prove derived from the messages and character of the text, but Maspero, while taking the great age of the chapter, does not attach any very great importance to the rubric as fixing any take date for its composition. Of Herutataf the finder of the block of stone, we know from later texts that he was taken to be a leamed man, and that his language was only with difficultness to be understood, and we also know the prominent part which he took as a recognized man of letters in bringing back the court of his father Khufu the sage Tetteta. It is then not improbable that Herutatafs character for learning may have advised the connection of his name with the chapter, and perchance as its literary reviser, at all cases as early as the period of the Middle Empire tradition related him with it.
Related Posts:
What is the Book of the Dead?
The History of the Book of The Dead