Book of the Dead Papyrus Inscribed for Gautsoshen
Third Intermediate Period
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 The vignette was originally made for another Chantress of Amen-re, but her name was erased and Gautsoshen’s added in the space left behind.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.
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