Texts on the Pyramid Corridor Scrolls

Texts on the Pyramid Corridor Scrolls

The walls and corridors of the pyramids of Kings Unus Teta Pepi I Meri-Ra, Merenra and Pepi II of Saqqara. The “Pyramid Texts” were written during the 5th and 6th Dynasties while the other texts during the 11th and 12th Dynasties are well represented in the texts painted on the sarcophagus of Amamu Sen. Both these texts and the so-called “Pyramid Texts” are part of the PER-TEM HRU a colored picture indicating the region through which the deceased traveled to the other world. The upper edge of the inside of the large rectangular sarcophagus is marked by two or more rows of colored paintings and the Islands of the Blessed or Elysian Fields given to the deceased or to statues during the 5th Dynasty during the “Opening of the Mouth” and the performance of the “Rite of Offering”. Under the 18th Dynasty, the verses from the PER-T EM HRU were compiled on papyrus scrolls rather than written on the sarcophagus.

Bilingual papyrus containing spells and recipes / Early 3rd century AD Written in Greek and Demotic. The Greek text has also been transliterated into Demotic / Papyrus and ink 9 7/16 × 33 5/8 in. : British Museum / photo : smarthistory

The Nebseni Papyrus is the best-known papyrus. The hieroglyphic texts were written in black ink and attempts were made to illustrate the text and with black sketches. It is 77 feet 74 inches long and 1 foot 14 inches wide. In the early 18th Dynasty, important words were written in red ink and the text in black and it became customary to decorate the small colored images and increase the size and number of the images. The oldest codex of this type is the Nu papyrus. On each roll both the text and the small images were usually the work of the same craftsman and it is 65 feet long and 1 foot 14 inches wide. The owners wrote the text on this and other scrolls for their own tombs. Later skilled artists were hired to add small colored images to the scrolls. Under the 19th and subsequent Pharaohs, many more papyri were written in hieroglyphic, without the small images but with a color cover image under the rule of the High Priest of Amen. After the changes that had occurred in the past

Pyramid of Kings Pepi Il

Creative Power and the Chapters in the Book of the Dead Honoring the Gods Worship of Osiris and Praise of Amen-Ra Two aspects of the same god the “hidden” creative power combines short texts and passages found on the walls of royal tombs in Thebes the “Book of the Open Mouth” the “Rituals of Offerings” under the rule of the pharaohs with the verses of PER-T EM HRU on the widest known papyrus measuring 123 feet by 1 foot 64 inches. One text written during this period found on the Nesi-Khensu papyrus, is a contract made between Nesi-Khensu and Amen-Ra “the holy god the lord of all gods of rebirth and resurrection which is characteristic of Osiris the inexhaustible sacrifices and the joy of heart soul and body in return for the great devotion of the queen and the devotion of Amen-Ra on earth and the chanting of the “Seventy Songs of Ra” of the soul or underworld in the idioms of the priests of Amen who believed that they had the power to make the gods do what they wanted when they wanted. There is very little information about the history of PER-T EM HRU after the fall of the priests of Amen during the Nubian rule but under the rule of the Pharaohs of the 26th Dynasty.



The Anhai papyrus a group of images of the great gods of Amen-Ra the “King of the Gods” in the content of the papyrus. The color images are striking and beautiful. The arrangement of the text of PER-T EM HRU to the gods of the realm of Osiris adds many prayers and invocations to the sun god in the text of PER-T EM HRU written on papyrus scrolls for use in funeral rites. Many of the scrolls in this section are short and contain only a few verses such as the papyrus of the mother of the Netshemet dynasty. In some copies the text is very damaged and poorly written. The sample of the Anhai papyrus is different from the papyrus of Princess Necitan Batashru. It is commonly called the “Greenfield papyrus”. It is the most interesting of all the scrolls written during the reign of the kings and priests of Upper Egypt.