Chapter 7 (part 2)

4 This sarcophagus is preserved in the Museum p. 83 of the Louvre in Paris, and its cover is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Among other sarcophagi inscribed with text and pictures from the BOOK AM-TUAT may be mentioned those of: 1. Horus, son of Tarut-en-Sekhet; 1 2. Tchet-hra, a priest of Ptah; 2 3. Qem-Hap, 3 the son of Takhaau; and Nekht-neb-f. Now, whilst on the walls of tombs, and on the side of sarcophagi, divisions Nos. I.-XI. are found, the only divisions which are met with on papyrus are Nos. IX.-XII. Thus the Louvre Papyrus, No. 3071, which formed the subject of a special study by Devéria 4 and Pierret, 5 and the Turin Papyrus, published by Lanzone 6 and the Leyden Papyrus T. 71, 7 contain each the last four divisions only. The Leyden Papyrus T. 72 8 contains divisions X., XL, and XII., the Berlin Papyrus No. 3001 contains divisions IX., X. and XII., and the Berlin Papyrus No. 3005 contains divisions X. and XI. only. There are several papyri in the British Museum inscribed with similar selections. p. 84 The principal authorities for the text of the SUMMARY of AM-TUAT are those which M. Jéquier consulted when preparing his edition, viz., the Berlin Papyrus No. 3001, the Leyden Papyrus T. 71, the Louvre Papyrus No. 3071, the Papyrus of Turin, published by Lanzone, and, of course, the tomb of Seti I., which gives the text of the first six divisions. The most valuable of all these is the Leyden Papyrus T. 71, of which an excellent fac-simile, with a complete translation, was published by Drs. Pleyte and Boeser in 1894; 1 in this papyrus the text of the SUMMARY only fills 119 short columns, and the great popularity of the work is attested by the fact that the priests of Amen were induced to compress all the most important portions of Am-Tuat into so small a compass. Similar in many details, but widely different from the BOOK AM-TUAT in point of fundamental doctrine, is the great funeral work to which the names "Book of the Lower Hemisphere," 2 "Book of Hades," "Livre de l'Enfer," have been given. A glance at the pictures which accompany the texts of this Book is sufficient to show that it deals with the passage of the Sun-god through the Other World during the hours of the night, but, as M. Maspero pointed out long ago, it is wrong to p. 85 call the region through which the god passes by the name of "Lower Hemisphere," for it suggests that it is below the surface of our earth, which is not the case. There is much to be said also against the titles "Book of Hades," and "Book of Hell," and as among the prominent characteristics which distinguish it from the BOOK AM-TUAT is a series of gates, it will be convenient and more correct to call it the "BOOK OF GATES." The form in which we first know this work is, clearly, not older than the XVIIIth or XIXth Dynasty, but many parts of it are very much more ancient.