Book of the Dead Papyrus Inscribed for Gautsoshen

Third Intermediate Period

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 126

Found inside Gautsoshen's Osiris figure (25.3.37a, b) this papyrus is inscribed with Chapter 15, a hymn adoring the sun god, Re, of the Book of Coming Forth by Day (Book of the Dead). The vignette on the right shows the deceased pouring a libation to Osiris, ruler of the netherworld, and his sister-wife Isis. The slim, delicate figures are outlined with red, then painted with a polychrome palette. The vignette was originally made for another Chantress of Amen-re, but her name was erased and Gautsoshen’s added in the space left behind.

The hieratic text of the solar hymn to the left was written by a skilled scribe, with beautiful calligraphy.

Book of the Dead Papyrus Inscribed for Gautsoshen, Papyrus, ink, paint

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