Know more about ancient Egypt! " The Im-Duwat"
Generally, Book of the dead or the IM-DUWAT “that which belongs to the second life “was a stereotype –book used to be written and provided to royal family members as well as to the very rich Egyptians. Just few of IM-DUWAT books were discovered in good order and completion.Most of discovered books were found located inside coffins of the Egyptian dead or kept hidden in kilts of stone or wooden statues.
The first complete IM-DUWAT seems to go back to the new kingdom however its first chapter was written during the old kingdom specifically during Cheops reign which is about 2500 B.C. The full book of the dead was found as Papyrus scrolls that can fill more than 20 meters long papyruses and fit in 150 A4 pages approximately. The most common chapter from the IM-DUWAT is the chapter of the twelve hours of the night which is partly found or completely carved on walls of tombs as well as found written on papyrus. However, the chapter of the twelve hours of the night was the most repetitive; it was rarely found in complete order and that was due to the high cost for writing it as a full book. .
The most popular part of the chapter of the twelve hours of the night according to finds of New kingdom papyruses and mainly the ones of the high-officials is the part of the 11th and the 12th hours which represent the final transformation of Amun-Ra and his rebirth. The second popular parts of that chapter are the 3rd, the 4th, the 5th and the 6th hours which are found in most of carvings of Valley of the Kings tombs. The chapter of the twelve hours of the night is found in complete order in tombs of king Seti I and tomb of king Thutmoses III in the Valley of the Kings.
The 12th hour of the night, written and Painted by Yasser kamel for Museumegypt. After painting it I became more convinced of the cause behind using strokes in making repetitive human figures on papyrus and else!
Yasser Kamel