Pyramid Texts Of Ancient Egypt That Charted Journey Of Pharaohs Into Afterlife

A. Sutherland  - AncientPages.com - Pyramid Texts represent the oldest known collection of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions containing religious texts, elaborate spells (or utterances), hymns, prayers, thousands of lines of fragments of myths and legends, references to mortuary and funerary rites, historical events, festivals.

Some of the Pyramid Texts of Ankhenespepy II. Photo Jaromír Krejcí. Source

There are also references to astronomical lore and cosmology (the king was destined to join the “imperishable stars”, and the goddess Isis was associated with Sirius, the Dog Star).

The texts were meticulously recorded on the walls of the pyramids of the kings Unas of the 5^th Dynasty, and Teti, Pepi I, Merenre and Pepi II of the 6^th Dynasty. All these rulers of Egypt from 2400 BC to 2200 BC were buried at Saqqara, the ancient necropolis of Memphis.

At first, the texts were intended to protect a dead king or queen and ensure life and sustenance in the afterlife. By the end of the Old Kingdom, specific chapters of the texts were used in non-royal tombs belonging to regional governors and other men of high status.

Unlike later texts, they did not include images but consisted only of purely hieroglyphic writings, divided into paragraphs called Utterances (spells) and meant to be chanted by those who were reciting them.

The Underworld described in the Pyramid texts was very similar to the landscape of Egypt with rivers and fields, richly covered with crops. Ancient Egyptian beliefs focused on the rebirth and the cycles of the Sun in the centuries that followed. This rebirth or resurrection referred to being reborn into the afterlife, and not into a physical form back on Earth.

Burial chamber of Sobekmose ca. 1417–1379 BC. The texts include selections from Spells 1, 15, 125, 130, and 151 of the Book of the Dead, and Utterance 32 of the Pyramid Texts. Image credit: MET

In the Old Kingdom, there is early evidence for the relationship between the deceased and Osiris, the god of the dead, fertility, resurrection, and afterlife, also identified with the Orion Constellation, and many references to the cult of the sun god Ra. Not only Ra and Osiris are mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, others include the fertility god Min and the creator goddess Neith. There are also deities like Seth, Shu, and Thoth, Anubis, Geb, and Horus.

The Pyramid Texts are divided by scientists into several groups, one group, for example, includes magical spells to ward against evil and harm. It was believed these spells helped to chase away monsters like snakes that could threaten the king's journey into the afterlife. According to beliefs, the snakes were dangerous intruders that came over the Nile from the Middle East lands, spells could.

Another spell that was found in a tomb curse dated to the 5th Dynasty reads: ‘As for anyone who shall lay a finger on this pyramid and this temple which belongs to me and my ka, …he will be one banished, one who eats himself.’

'Pyramid Texts,' from the antechamber of the pyramid of King Unas. Plate 4 from Alexandre Piankoff’s ‘The Pyramid of Unas.’ Image credit: Pyramid Texts Online

The earliest known example of the Pyramid Texts is that found in the pyramid of Unas (Unis) of the 5th Dynasty (2735-2345 BC). The texts identified the king with Ra and with Osiris, whose cult was growing spreading in the pharaoh Unas’ time. Unas was the first pharaoh to have the Pyramid Texts carved and painted inside his pyramid. This tradition was later followed by his successors until the First Intermediate Period (c. 2160-c. 2050 BC).

The Pyramid Texts remained in use until the reign of Ibi of the 8th Dynasty (2181-2161 BC); however, the texts were traditionally only inscribed on the walls of the burial chamber inside the pyramids, on huge stone sarcophagi, and antechamber.

It is not determined whether all Pyramid Texts were initially composed for use in the cult of the dead only. Some of them may have originated in the temple cult of Osiris and were later included in rituals for the dead.

Written by – A. Sutherland  - AncientPages.com Senior Staff Writer

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