Papyrus of the Nu

The Papyrus of the Nu is one of the most important papyri of the Book of the Dead from ancient Egypt . It dates to the 18th Dynasty and is now in the British Museum . It was probably bought by this museum in 1888 or 1889 and is said to come from Thebes . It bears the inventory number BM EA 10477. Today the papyrus is 19.9 m long and 34.5 cm high, whereby the beginning of the roll is partially crumbled, so that it was originally even longer.

The "head of the treasurer " Nuu ( Nww ) is named as the owner . His parents are called Amenhotep and Senisenebu. Nu was probably a middle official who served the treasurer Sobekhotep, as a person with the name Nu and a comparable title is mentioned in the tomb of Sobekhotep ( TT63 ). The papyrus is described with 133 chapters of the Book of the Dead. It is one of the longest, but also the best preserved papyri of the Dead Book from the 18th Dynasty and from Egypt in general. Contrary to later mores, only a few of the chapters are illustrated. The papyrus probably began with chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead, with only three fragments remaining at the beginning, showing Nu in front of the god of the dead Osiris . The following chapters are mostly without pictures, only at the end there are depictions, including the dead on a ship (chapter 99) or a ba-bird (chapter 85).

literature

• G. Lapp: Catalog of the Books of the Dead in the British Museum. Volume 1: The Papyrus of Nu (BM EA 10477). British Museum Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-7141-1902-4 .