10 | New Scientist | 12 October 2019ARCHAEOLOGISTS have found
remains of the oldest known
copy of the Book of Two Ways,
a guide to the Ancient Egyptian
underworld.
About a century ago,
Egyptologists began finding
annotated drawings inside
4000-year-old wooden
coffins buried in a necropolis
called Dayr al-Barshā. Among
the drawings was a panel on
which there were two long,
meandering lines (pictured
above) that seemed to be
described as roads in the
surrounding hieroglyphic
text. Elsewhere, the text
appeared to offer instructions
for travelling through the
underworld towards the resting
place of the god Osiris – a
journey that, if successful,
would secure a happy afterlife.
This suggested to researchers
that the illustrations were a map
of the underworld, with the
meandering lines representing
two paths the dead could take
on their travels.
Only a few dozen copies
of the book survive today.
Now, one more has been added
by Gina Criscenzo-Laycock at
the University of Liverpool, UK,
and Hanne Creylman and Harco
Willems at the KU Leuven inBelgium. In 2012, they led a
team that excavated a burial
shaft at Dayr al-Barshā that
had previously been ignored.
At the very bottom, they
found the remains of a coffin
covered in hieroglyphs. “To my
amazement it was a Book of
Two Ways,” says Willems.
From nearby inscriptions,
it was possible to date the
coffin to the time of Pharaoh
Mentuhotep II, who reigned
until 2010 BC (The Journal of
Egyptian Archaeology, doi.org/
db8p). This suggests this copy
of the book is about 40 years
older than any other we know
of, says Willems.
Other archaeologists agree
with this conclusion, although
Foy Scalf at the University
of Chicago says completeconfidence in the dating
will be possible only after
the team publishes its
final excavation report.
Burkhard Backes at the
University of Tübingen in
Germany says there are a
few earlier, simpler visualdepictions of the Egyptian
underworld, but the Book of
Two Ways appears to be far
more elaborate. Scalf says it
could be described as the “first
illustrated ‘book’ in history”.
This means that the new
discovery slightly extends
our record of such works of
literature, and also suggests
the Ancient Egyptians began
producing detailed maps to
help the dead reach the afterlife
earlier than we thought.
Or, at least, it might do.
While most archaeologists
still consider the Book of Two
Ways to be a visual guide to the
underworld, a few – including
Willems – have their doubts.
“It definitely looks like a map,”
he says, but he adds that it is
very difficult to know that the
Ancient Egyptians intended
it to be seen in those terms.
While the arrangement of lines,
monstrous figures, doors and
ships looks map-like to us, it
might not have done to them.
Willems speculates that the
Book of Two Ways was initially
developed by the cult of Osiris,
the ruler of the underworld, as a
set of rituals to bring him back
to life. These rituals might later
have been painted on coffins
in the belief they could help
restore an occupant to life.
Whatever its purpose,
the Book of Two Ways shows
the Ancient Egyptians were
fascinated by the underworld.
It is also clear that both men
and women could hope to
obtain a favourable afterlife:
the newly discovered copy of
the Book of Two Ways was in
the coffin of a high-ranking
woman called Ankh. ❚DEDICATED aquarium enthusiasts
are keeping alive dozens of fish
species now believed to be extinct
in the wild and helping to preserve
hundreds more.
The CARES Fish Preservation
Program, founded by enthusiast
Claudia Dickinson in 2004,
encourages fish-keepers to keep,
breed and exchange endangered
fish to help preserve viable
populations. It has compiled
a priority list of nearly 600
freshwater fish, which has now
been assessed and compared with
official lists of endangered species.
Jose Valdez at Aarhus University in
Denmark and Kapil Mandrekar at
the State University of New York
found 80 of the species on the
CARES list have yet to be formally
described by scientists (Fishes,
doi.org/dcbp).There are also 30 species
CARES says are extinct in the wild.
Members of the programme are
keeping populations of these alive.
Many of the species on the CARES
list have no commercial value
as pets, and aren’t charismatic
enough for many conservation
organisations, says Mandrekar.
If they weren’t on the list, no one
would be doing anything to
preserve them.
Valdez says many of the
hobbyists dedicate their time to
certain fish and even go on field
trips to study them in the wild.
“Since they are passionate and
are directly involved with these
fish, they are more knowledgeable
than scientists,” says Valdez. ❚A Book of Two Ways
painted in a coffin
from 1800 BCThe blue tail
goodeid is
critically
endangered, but
kept going by
aquarium
enthusiastsZoology EgyptologyMichael Le Page Colin BarrasWERNER
FORMAN/GETT
Y^ IMAGESKA
PIL
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News
Guide to the underworld is
earliest illustrated book
Hobbyists are saving
rare species of fish
from extinction4000
The age in years of the
decorated coffins