Ancient Egyptian Guide To Rostau – The Underworld Of God Osiris May Be World’s Oldest Illustrated Book

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Scientists have made a quite remarkable find in an Egyptian sarcophagus. They have retrieved what may be the world’s oldest illustrated book. It’s a 4,000-year-old copy of a book named Book of Two Ways and it’s possibly the oldest version ever found.

To ancient Egyptians, death was not the end, but rather the beginning of a new existence and a transition to another reality. According to ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs, after a person died he or she would be judged by Osiris, the god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead.

Lady Meresimen, Singer of God Amon, giving presents to Osiris and the "Four Sons of Horus". Credit:  Public Domain

The discovered Book of Two Ways is a mystical road map to the ancient Egyptian underworld. Basically, it can be considered a guide how to reach Rostau, the realms of God Osiris.

The fragment of the Book of Two Ways was found on the coffin a lady called Ankh from Dayr al-Barsha.

The Dayr al-Barsha project started in 2012, but it’s the first now that archaeologists noticed this valuable ancient Egyptian text that contains spells and instructions on how to proceed to the Underworld. Archaeologists investigated one of five in the tomb complex of the nomarch Ahanakht. Twenty feet down, the scientists discovered the remains of a sarcophagus neglected by previous generations of archaeologists and looters.

“On most pieces of the coffin, all traces of paint and ink have now disappeared. Amounts of CT have survived, but most are in a very poor state. As was common in the early Middle Kingdom at Dayr al-Barsha, these texts were first inscribed in ink on the wood or on a thin plaster layer. Subsequently, these texts were made ‘permanent’ by engraving them into the wood.

Some of the fragments after the removal from their protective cover. Credit: Harco Willems

 However, after the disappearance of the coat of plaster and whitewash and the ink it bore, only the deeper parts of the scratchings remain, and these hardly ever result in a legible text. The bottom part is in a slightly better state, as ink and paint are preserved in many places, even though the remaining traces are extremely vague and nearly illegible to the naked eye,” researchers write in their paper published in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.

For a minute researchers were slightly confused because some of the planks were etched with the name Djehutynakht, and they thought the coffin contained a governor’s body. However, inside the coffin was a woman named Ankh, who appeared to have been related to an elite provincial official, even though the Book refers to Ankh as “he.”

View of the bottom of the coffin. Credit: Harco Willems

“To me, what’s funny is the idea that how you survive in the netherworld is expressed in male terms,” Harco Willems, an Egyptologist at the University of Leuven in Belgium, said.

Despite the importance of Maat, ancient Egypt’s most important religious concept, male gods were considered responsible for the creation and regeneration.

“Goddesses were believed to be protective vessels,” Kara Cooney, a professor of Egyptian art and architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles, said.

“In the engraving, “the pronoun ‘he’ was essential even for female deceased people because they needed to be like Osiris.

It's very like the oldest version of the Book of Two Ways has bee found. Credit: Harco Willems

Generally, each individual’s Book differed in length and lavishness depending on its owner’s wealth or status.” the New York Times reports.

“This one begins with a text encircled by a red line designated as ‘ring of fire,’” Dr. Willems said.

“The text is about the sun god passing this protective fiery ring to reach Osiris.” Gates feature prominently, as do two looping lines indicating the separate roads to the afterlife, surrounded by malignant spirits and other supernatural beings.

The final image shows a barque dragged on a sledge — “Spell 1128,” Dr. Willems said — and follows the final text (“Spell 1130”), which yokes the dead person’s identity forever to the sun god, Ra, the creator.

Assuming Ankh casts her spells properly, she has become a god.

Written by Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com Staff Writer