coffin text is a modern name for the diverse body of spells
or recitations used on burial equipment during the middle Kingdom.
These texts were mainly painted on wooden coffins but also
appeared on tomb walls and on funerary items such as a steel or canopic chest.
The coffin texts were
composed in middle Egyptian a form of Egyptian language that became the
standard for literary works the text were usually written in simplified
hieroglyphics.
Many spells in the coffin text are also known from versions
in the pyramid texts. Both collections may derive from an archive of more to
Sherry text written on a papyrus that does not survive.
Some of the coffin tech spells are given titles that define
their functions such as a spell for navigating in the great baroque of Ra or
include instructions for the ritual that should accompany them.
A few sections on the coffin techs have vignettes
illustrations that form an integral part of the spell. the most elaborate of
these are the two Maps that belong to a section of the coffin text known as the
book of two ways. These Maps which are usually painted on the floor of coffins are
the earliest known Maps from any culture.
The book of two ways was nothing less than an illustrated
guide to the afterlife. It claimed to give 2 routes one by land and one by
water through a sinister divine realm beyond the horizon. and to provide the
deceased with the spells they would need to get past the monstrous guardians
they would face on the way.
The deceased had to pass through the mysterious region Rosetau
where the body of Osiris lay surrounded by walls of flames. If the deceased man
or woman proved worthy, he or she might be granted a new life in a paradise
call the field of offerings.
Although they are not
narrative's some spells in the coffin text describe major events in the
Egyptian creation story and even provide evidence for the Egyptian views about
the end of the world. The creator Atum Ra and his offspring Shu and Tefnut are
particularly prominent.
Much of the texts deal with transformation of the sun God
into various forms. A new element is a stress on the dangers faced by the sun
God during his celestial voyage such as attacks by the chaos monster Apep Snake
Coffin texts have been found in sites all over Egypt but the
majority come from the geographical region known as middle Egypt. The local
deities of middle Egypt such as Toth and the group of primeval beings later
known as the Ogdoad it of Hermopolis feature in many of these spells. Djehutey also
appears in many of the spells that allude to the conflict between Horace and Set
and the rescue of the body of Osiris.
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