Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection Berlin
Collection:
Papyrus collection
The Egyptian Museum Berlin is actually a 'double museum' since the Papyrus collection with ca. 60. 000 scripts spanning 4000 years is also a part of the museum. This library of world literature contains ancient Egyptian classics such as the story of Sinuhe, Greco-Roman texts, texts of the Old and New Testaments as well as the Koran.
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The Biography of Sinuhe
Middle Kingdom
12th Dynasty, ca. 1800 B.C.
Papyrus
Height 21 cm, length 490 cm
Theben (?)
Inv.-No. P 3022
The fictitious autobiography of the official Sinuhe (at the beginning of the 2. Millennium B.C.) was the most popular story in ancient Egypt. Its style and contents was used as an example for writing students so that there exist many mostly incomplete copies of the text written on ostraca (limestone sherds). The Berlin script is written on papyrus in hieratic (a script form of hieroglyphs) und contains the complete story.
Sinuhe escapes from Egypt to Palestine after Ammenemes I is killed. He fears that having served under the Queen he might be suspected of conspiracy. After many years of travel, he finally settles near Biblos and marries the daughter of a local ruler. There he accumulates great wealth and respect but still at the end of his life he wishes to return to Egypt and to be buried there. This request is finally granted to him by the new king Sesostris I and Sinuhe returns to Egypt. -
Mythological Papyrus: Adoration of Re in the West in 21 Forms of the Sun God and Invocation
New Kingdom
20th Dynasty, 12th century B.C.
Papyrus
Height 24 cm, length 159 cm
Inv.-No. P 3153
It is a particularity of Egyptian religion to visualise in various ways, and thereby make comprehensible, the invisible. The row of 21 gods on this papyrus presents a shortened version of the Litany of the Sun, normally consisting of 74 evocation which praise the sungod Re during his descent in the evening, his travels through the and his rising in the morning from underworld. Re, during his travels, takes on different forms in order to document his various functions: The bound prisoners show Re in his function as punisher, the mummy shaped figure with the scarab as a head shows the form of the god at the beginning of the day. The owner of the Papyrus was a Theben priest called Nes-Amun-nesut-tauj who is shown kneeling at both ends of the roll. -
'The Book of What is in the Underworld '(Amduat) for the Priest of Amun Amenophis (in cursive hieroglyphs) d
3rd Intermediate Period
21st Dynasty, 11th century B.C.
Papyrus
Height 39 cm, length 236 cm
Thebes
Inv.-No. P 3005
The Amduat is a kind of map which helps the deceased to orient himself concerning the Netherworld which he will encounter after death. The places, the people and the dangers are named because 'he who knows will be transfigured'.
The deceased stand in front of the Osiris and asks to be admitted to the netherworld. The spells written on the papyrus helps him to be able to depart, in the form of the soul-bird, to this world and to return in the evening to travel with the sun through the netherworld. Through this circulation Osiris and all others are revitalized for the next morning -
Book of the Dead of Neferini
Ptolemaic, 4th to 1st century B.C.
Papyrus
Height 27 cm, length 985 cm
Achmim
Inv.-No. P 10477
The Book of the Dead was in use since the beginning of the New Kingdom with the complete version containing 200 chapters. More frequently however only the most important verses are included. The Book of the Dead was placed with the dead either as a papyrus roll or as single chapters written on linen bindings added to the mummy bindings. The verses served to help the deceased to find his way and to know how to correctly approach the Gods and demons so he could live as a 'transfigured' one among them. Of all chapters no. 125 'the negative confession' is always included; here the dead stands in front of 42 judges and enumerates all sins he did not commit. The scene includes the weighing of the heart in front of Osiris. The heart of the dead is placed on a scale and weight against the 'the truth' in form of the goddess Maat (sometimes depicted as a feather). If he is found justified by Osiris he is welcomed in the netherworld, if found guilty a monster consisting of a mix form made up of crocodile, lion and hippopotamus will devour him. Since for the ancient Egyptians depictions represented reality, the result of this judgement is always shown with a positive result. -
The Persians of Timotheus of Miletus (Greek)
Ptolemaic, 4th century B.C.
Papyrus
Height 18,5 cm, length 111 cm
Abusir
Inv.-No. P 9875
One of the oldest Greek papyri from Egypt with part of a play called 'The Persians' was found in a wooden coffin in a tomb at Abusir in 1902. The poet, musician writer Timotheus of Miletus (450 - 360 B.C.) was famous - and controversial - in his own time as an exponent of the so-called 'New Music' with the invention of the 11 string kithara and with a taste for epic themes such as the Persian defeat at Salamis which he expounds at great length. At the end of his story stand an appeal to the god and a blessing for cities in which his poem is declaimed. -
Dispute of Kyrill, Coptic Father of the Church, with the Heathen Philosophers
Dispute of Kyrill, Coptic Father of the Church, with the Heathen Philosophers
7th century A.D.
Limestone
Height 39 cm, width 32 cm
Thebes
Inv.-No. P 14763
Written on a limestone fragment (ostraca) is this, probably fictive, incident in the life of the famous patriarch of Alexandria (412-444 A.D.). Kyrill disputes with philosophers about the reality of the Gods. In the end he can convince his listeners of the sole existence of the Christian god who created the world and rules over the heavens.
The text written in Coptic, the last phase of the ancient Egyptian language, now written with standard Greek letters plus with 7 additional new letters. Coptic was introduced in the 2nd century A.D .and affected especially by the spread of Christianity in Egypt. Only centuries later was it replaced by Arabic, but continues to this day in the liturgy of the Copts of Egypt.
Sudan
Last updates: text (09.05.08), pictures (12.04.08)
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