An Ancient Papyrus Scroll, Recently Discovered, Has Been Translated

A 2,000+-year-old manuscript has recently been deciphered and translated. It was found in a necropolis or burial site for the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis. The historic capital city is no more, but the necropolis, including its pyramids, are still here to remind us of what it once was. This manuscript is a papyrus scroll, found in a tomb in the Saqqara necropolis that served Memphis.

The scroll is of what we now call the Book of the Dead. That's a more recent western term for these sort of guidebooks to the underworld. That name may sound morbid, and the underworld quite literally hellish, but that is not an accurate portrayal of the ancient Egyptian beliefs. It was really a guide to emerging into everlasting life at the end of a journey all souls must take through the underworld after they die. The underworld is not like the Hell we know, but a place where the soul is tested to see if it is worthy of eternal life. It is challenging, but not a place of eternal punishment. If you failed, you simply ceased to exist.

The Book of the Dead provides guides, magic spells, and such to aid you on your journey, hence it's being found in tombs. The old saying “you can't take it with you” was not accepted by the Egyptians. Like any travel guide, you needed to take it with you for it to be of any use. It was not like the Bible or some fundamental, unchanging religious text. No two copies were necessarily alike. Each one might contain different spells and other information. The scrolls could range anywhere from a couple of feet in length to over 100 feet. The difference likely reflected the person's status. This recently discovered scroll is 52 feet long.

As an aside, these ancient scrolls were made from papyrus, a sort of heavy paper-like substance created from the papyrus plant, found in Egypt. Centuries later it would be replaced by vellum, made from animal skins, that was more durable and easier to write upon. Vellum also had the capacity to be folded, making what we think of as books possible. Papyrus could not be folded. The only way to create long texts was to roll them up, which is why these ancient documents are scrolls rather than books.

The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that it was found as part of a recent archaeological discovery. It is the first such complete papyrus discovery in over 100 years. The plan is to display it in the Grand Egyptian Museum, now under construction, when it is completed.