Book of the Dead of Nebhepet

This roll, almost three metres long, was made for Nebhepet, whom the museum identifies as a son of Butehamun, the scribe whose coffins stand nearby. Its text is shortened, but it is full of pictures, and the museum calls it a typical Book of the Dead of the 21st Dynasty, a period when many rolls cut back the spells and gave more room to painted scenes.

Look for the three scenes of work on the land. Nebhepet ploughs, he reaps wheat, and he gathers flax, each task in its own season. Farming in the afterlife was an old wish, but the museum reads these scenes as something more, a kind of allegory. Nebhepet is set beside Osiris in two of his forms. One is Osiris of vegetation, tied to grain ripening in the sunlight. The other is the Osiris of the moon, tied to flax growing under its rays. In ploughing, sowing and harvest, the dead man takes part in the god's own cycle of renewal.

The museum gives no date range for this roll, only the 21st Dynasty.