What is the modern name for the ancient Egyptian funerary text containing spells for the afterlife? The modern name is the Book of the Dead. It is a modern collective label for Egyptian funerary manuscripts containing spells intended to help the dead travel through the underworld and reach the afterlife.
The Egyptians did not treat it as one fixed book. Individual papyri contained different selections from a large body of spells, often accompanied by colourful vignettes. The original Egyptian title is commonly translated as “Spells of Coming Forth by Day,” referring to the deceased’s hoped-for emergence into the daylight and renewed existence.
The tradition developed from earlier Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts. The Book of the Dead became especially prominent from the New Kingdom, beginning around 1550 BCE, and remained in use into the first century BCE. Spell 125 describes the Weighing of the Heart, in which the heart is measured against the feather of Maat before Osiris.
A common mistake is to imagine every copy had the same contents. Around 192 spells are known, but no surviving manuscript includes them all. Amduat was another funerary composition, while Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts belong to earlier or distinct stages of Egyptian funerary literature.