irmtraut munro

Unrolling a papyrus (without destroying it) is an expensive and complicated process. How do you do it without causing the whole thing to crumble into unintelligable flakes? Well, last year the Royal Ontario Museum unrolled a Book of the Dead that had long been in their collection, which dated back to ca. 320 BC, the early Ptolemaic period. And they also made a cool video about how it was done.

A group at the ROM called, “Friends of Egypt,” financed the project. A language expert and specialized conservators were brought in. The book was mounted, and, at the beginning of this year, put on public display.

The book was purchased by the museum’s founder Charles Trick Currelly about 100 years back. It’s from the Luxor (Thebes) area and was buried with a man named Amenemhat.

I think my mind's had just enough time to recover from this year's two day-long Egyptological Colloquium. No less than 18 top experts lent their latest opinions and discoveries to the audience at the British Museum; more than enough for me to cope with. Though I'd like to think of myself as an avid fan of the ancient world, I could never for a second hope to pass myself off as a resident Book of the Dead buff - so there was plenty of new material for my mediocre mind to cope with. So, a good sleep and some brainless telly watching later, I've compiled a brief list of the ten most intriguing Book of the Dead facts and theories - for me - that really brought the complexity and importance of the beautiful text to life.