Instructions for eternal life were exhibited for the first time in Los Angeles: “Bones of a Rotten Cat”

In Los Angeles, the Getty Museum displays a fragment of the Pasherashakhet papyrus. This manuscript dates from approximately 375 to 275 BC. The papyrus is part of the funerary scrolls that are collectively known as the Book of the Dead.

The Getty Museum is hosting an exhibition featuring papyri created by scribes for the Book of the Dead, The New York Times reports. This manuscript helped the human soul navigate its journey to the afterlife. The ancient Egyptians believed that the dead went to the underworld where they were judged by the god Anubis. If the soul were found worthy, it would be granted eternal life. It was believed that the Book of the Day of Advent, one of the translations from the ancient Egyptian language, could only be afforded by the pharaohs and the elite.

In the mid-19th century, British antiquarian Thomas Phillips announced his intention to own one copy of every book in the world. By the time of the collector’s death in 1872, he had amassed a collection of 60 thousand documents and 50 thousand printed books. It also contained 19 fragments of ancient funeral scrolls, which now make up the “Egyptian Book of the Dead.” It was purchased by New York bookseller Hans Kraus at auction. As a philanthropist, he donated the purchased book to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 1983. From then on, the lot was not displayed as an exhibit and was kept in a crypt to prevent light from damaging the relic, which covers the period from approximately 1450 to 100 BC. It was not until early November that seven major fragments from the Egyptian Book of the Dead were presented to the public.

UC Berkeley Egyptologist Rita Lucarelli noted the significance of the event: “I am delighted that the Getty Museum has finally decided to uncover and exhibit what has until now been an almost forgotten part of its magnificent collection of antiquities, but which actually contains important examples of one of the most famous ancient Egyptian corpuses in the world.”

Do not forget that the manuscript is not a standard book, but a collection of 200 ritual spells and prayers with instructions on how the spirit of the deceased should read them in a future life. For example, Spell 33 was used to repel snakes, which had the smell of “rotten cat bones.”

Exhibition curator Sarah Cole described the fragments as a kind of supernatural “travel insurance” designed to extend protection for the deceased on the long and winding journey through the afterlife. Unlike today’s insurance policies, if you lose it, you cannot restore it.

“Texts are a means to calm your mortal anxiety and control your destiny,” says Egyptologist and exhibition catalog editor Foy Scalfe.

Why is The Advent Book known by a different name? In 1842, the German scholar Karl Richard Lepsius published a translation of the manuscript and coined the title “The Book of the Dead” (das Todtenbuch), which reflected fantasies about the nature and character of Egyptian civilization. The numbering system he used to identify various spells is still in use today.

Among the creepiest illustrations on display at the Getty are images of gods (Anubis with the head of a jackal; Horus with the head of a falcon) and monsters (Aman the Devourer, a hybrid of a lion and a hippopotamus with the head of a crocodile).

“The purpose of these beings being terrifying is not to frighten souls trying to gain access to these places, but to keep out those who do not belong there. Becoming one of the gods is a very limited thing,” says Dr. Scalf.

It is believed that the soul’s intended destination was the realm of the gods, which resembled an idealized version of Egypt. Having reached the goal, the deceased joined the sun god Ra, who crossed the sky on a solar boat.

Two of the four papyrus scrolls in the Getty exhibit belonged to women named Aset and Ankhesenaset, both of whom were priestesses and ritual “singers of Amun” in the god’s temple at the Karnak complex in Thebes. The scrolls are tattered fragments recovered from tombs during the era of European colonization and were sold to the art market.

The oldest roll of papyrus in the Getty collection belonged to a woman named Webenner. It is noted that some instructions were painted inside and outside the sarcophagi, others were imprinted on shrouds, figurines, amulets and “magic bricks” built into the walls of the tombs.

The most precious items in the exhibition were linen bandages with spells inscribed on them, used to wrap the body as part of the ritual embalming process. This was not done often, and as the curator of the exhibition notes, “it made people’s relationship to the Book of the Dead even more personal.”

Another unique exhibit is a vignette depicting the courtroom of Osiris and the gods, during which the heart of the deceased is weighed by Anubis, guardian of the kingdom of the dead, along with the feather of the goddess Maat, the embodiment of truth and justice. It is believed that it depicts Pasherashakhet, the “gatekeeper” who served the moon god Khonsu at Karnak. If the heart is too heavy, it means that sins outweigh good deeds. Then Aman the Devourer, with her mouth open, in this case absorbs the soul and dooms it to a second and lasting death.