We recently went to London to see the Book of the Dead exibition in the Britsh Museum.
The exibition is real great, from many points of view: the artistc value and symbolism of the books themselves, the way they are presented, the information given as one walks along the papyrus and the great finale: a 30 meters plus long papyrus mounted on a semicircular wall.
It is really great!!
Following is a extract from the exibition guide that we thought was worth to share here:
" The Book of the Dead was the culmination of a long tradition in ancient Egypt of providing religius texts for the dead.The earliest funerary texts were carved on the walls of royal pyramids, and these were followed by spells written on the surfaces of coffins.The Book of the Dead developed directly from these early funerary texts. It could be inscribed on coffins,shrouds and mummy bandages, but wss usually written on rolls of papyrus.
Must of the papyri in this exibition date from the New Kingdom period from about 1550 to 1069 BC. After a hiatus from 850-700 BC the Book of the Dead wsa revived and reorganized, and continued in use until around 100-0 BC"
This is a marvelous exibition : broadgay recommends visiting the Book of the Dead at the British Museum in London.
You can buy the tickets in advance using the British Museum webpage: www.britishmuseum.org.
We recommend to call in advance an book your entrance slot since there are lots of people going to the exibition and it may be difficult to get a good time to visit.
