410 Tomb Texts
about the investigation and about the tombs searched for
desecration and vandalism.Tomb Texts The various mortuary documents
inscribed or painted on the tomb walls in various eras of
Egyptian history. Some, compiled as the BOOK OF THE
DEAD, were included in the funerary regalia or were
reproduced in tomb reliefs. The most popular texts used
as burial chamber decorations included
Amduat originally called “the Book of the Hidden
Room” or “that which is in the Tuat” (or Underworld).
Stick figures, starkly black and stylized, portray the 12
sections on the tomb walls. The Twelve Hours of the
Night compose another version of the Amduat.The tomb
of TUTHMOSIS III(r. 1479–1425 B.C.E.) is decorated with
the Amduat,also listed as Am Duator Am Tuat.
Book of Gates the illustrations first used in the
tomb of HOREMHAB(r. 1319–1307 B.C.E.) and depicting
the twelve parts of the TUAT,or Underworld, complete
with fierce guardians, a lake of fire, and the secret caverns
of the deity SOKAR.
Book of Caverns a variation on the traditional BOOK
OF THE DEADtexts, depicting vast caverns that formed the
TUAT,or Underworld.A false door in a tomb from the Old Kingdom
(2575–2134 B.C.E.) that depicts the deceased returning from
Tuat, the land beyond the grave.(S. M. Bunson.)
A papyrus tomb text depicting a deceased couple, Ani and his wife, worshiping Osiris, in a copy of the Book of the Dead.
(Hulton Archive.)