Coffin texts

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Coffin texts are a collection of religious sayings that were mostly attached to the inside of coffins of high-ranking people in the Egyptian Middle Kingdom . Many of these texts have developed from the pyramid texts , which have now also been attached to the walls of the coffin. The classification of pyramid and coffin texts is a modern one, while the Egyptians probably rather differentiated the functions of individual texts. The joint inscriptions that were placed in the joints of the coffin walls are a special form .

Coffin texts have different functions. Some of these are ritual texts that were spoken during mummification or burial . Some texts deal with the protection of the mummies or contain directions to the underworld .

The first longer religious texts appear on coffins at the end of the Old Kingdom, but are particularly popular in the Middle Kingdom. At the end of the 12th dynasty , the custom of labeling coffins with long texts ceases to be used again in the 13th dynasty, even if far fewer texts have survived from this phase. In the New Kingdom , the Book of the Dead comes up, from which many sayings come from the coffin texts. Individual sayings were still used in the late period .

example

Proverb No. 764:

O NN here, the guardians of the gods stand up before you,
those who fear you in their primeval times,
and those in their cities shudder at you.
The gods come to you at the landing of your throne,
and you are cheered by the numerous sun people who are in the palace of God.
Rise up, who are too big to watch
and too huge to sleep.
You are the great god.
Horus has gathered your limbs for you.
You are the jackal on his side when his form passes by his enemies.
You own the sky, the earth is given to you as far as your arms reach.
You are (on the way to) the two realms of sacrifice together with Nephthys and Osiris.
You ascend to Re in heaven and they obey you
Gods in him
for you have been given the power of the foremost of the western.
Your bread is good before the gods
and your food is before the two great novelties
and before Anubis, who is above the gods.
May you remove all your bonds
untie your ties
wipe the spills on yours
Meat to the ground.
Haracht has ordered that you
Mate you love
in every place you go

See also

literature

  • Adriaan de Buck (, James P. Allen): The Egyptian Coffin Texts (= University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications. Vol. 34, 49, 64, 67, 73, 81, 87, 132, ISSN  0069-3367 ). 8 volumes. University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL 1935-1961, 2006.
    • 1: Texts of spells 1-75.
    • 2: Texts of spells 76-163.
    • 3: Texts of spells 164-267.
    • 4: Texts of spells 268-354.
    • 5: Texts of spells 355-471.
    • 6: Texts of spells 472-786.
    • 7: Texts of spells 787-1185.
    • 8: with James P. Allen: Middle Kingdom copies of pyramid texts. Chicago 2006, ISBN 978-1-885923-40-0 .
  • Coffin texts. In: Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto : Small Lexicon of Egyptology. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0 , pp. 258f.
  • Hans Bonnet : Coffin Texts. In: Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History. 3rd unchanged edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 669f.
  • Rami van der Molen: A Hieroglyphic Dictionary of Egyptian Coffin Texts (= Problems of Egyptology. Vol. 15). Brill, Leiden / Boston / Cologne 2000, ISBN 90-04-11654-0 .
  • Jan Assmann : Liturgies of the dead in the coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom (= ancient Egyptian liturgies of the dead. Vol. 1 = Writings of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class, supplements to the writings of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class. Vol. 14) . Winter, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-8253-1199-6 .
  • Louise Gestermann : The transmission of selected texts from ancient Egyptian literature on the dead ("coffin texts") in late-time tombs. (= Egyptological treatises. Vol. 68). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-447-05193-0 .

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ James P. Allen: Coffin Texts from Lisht. In: Harco Willems (Ed.): The World of the Coffin Texts. Proceedings of the Symposium held on the Occasion of the 100th Birthday of Adriaan de Buck , Leiden December 17-19, 1992 (= Egyptologische Uitgaven. Vol. 9). Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1996, ISBN 90-6258-209-5 , p. 15.
  2. ↑ Louise Gestermann: The transmission of selected texts from ancient Egyptian literature on the dead ("coffin texts") in late-time tombs (= Egyptological treatises. Vol. 68). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-447-05193-0 .
  3. ↑ after: Assmann: Totenliturgien. 2002, pp. 191-192.
  4. ↑ Assmann uses N unusually ; In transcriptions and other regularia, however, Wikipedia follows the Egyptological standard, so the quote appears slightly modified with NN