The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead

Publication of data on textual witnesses of the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead from the Academy project “Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead” (1994/2004-2012). Published in 2012, the portal offers descriptions, images and bibliographies of around 3000 textual witnesses of the Book of the Dead, as well as visualizations and evaluations of the objects, Book of the Dead sayings and motifs contained therein. The portal is a central resource for international mortuary research and is continuously maintained at the CCeH.

depiction of the judgement of dead on an ancient egyptian papyrus scroll

Link

http://totenbuch.awk.nrw.de

Runtime

2011–2012 (at the CCeH; ongoing support since then)

project participants

Egyptology (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn), CCeH, North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. Project lead: Prof. Dr. Ursula Rößler-Köhler (University of Bonn). For other participants, see http://totenbuch.awk.nrw.de/projekt/mitarbeiter.

Funding

The overall project was funded by the DFG from 1994–2004, then by the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts until the end of the project.

Description

Publication of data on textual witnesses of the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead from the Academy project “Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead” (1994/2004–2012). Published in 2012, the portal offers descriptions, images and bibliographies of around 3000 textual witnesses of the Book of the Dead, as well as visualizations and evaluations of the objects, verses and motifs contained therein. It is a central resource for international research on the Book of the Dead and is continuously maintained by the CCeH.

Publications

Henny, Ulrike / Blumtritt, Jonathan / Schaeben, Marcel / Sahle, Patrick (2017). “The Life Cycle of the Book of the Dead as a Digital Humanities Resource.” In: Digital Classics Online 3.2, pp. 60–79. DOI: 10.11588/dco.2017.0.35896.

Henny, Ulrike (2013). “Aufbau eines Digitalen Textzeugenarchivs zum Altägyptischen Totenbuch.” Presentation at the workshop Best Practice: Digitale Korpora: Workshop der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Union der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften. Berlin, August 10, 2013. Link: https://prezi.com/pthztgusy4g8/aufbau-eines-digitalen-textzeugenarchivs-zum-altagyptischen-totenbuch/.

Sahle, Patrick / Henny, Ulrike (2013). “Egyptology Meets Digital Humanities: The Book of the Dead.” Presentation at the Digital Classicist Berlin Seminars. Berlin, August 1, 2013. Link: http://de.digitalclassicist.org/berlin/2013/01/07/Sahle-Henny.

Picture credits

Representation of the judgment of the dead in P. Köln P. Colon. Aeg. 10207, 7th to 6th century BC, Trismegistos 57143, Department of Classics, University of Cologne, https://papyri.uni-koeln.de/stueck/tm57143.