4,000-Year-Old Guide to Ancient Egyptian Underworld May Be Oldest Illustrated Text

4,000-Year-Old Guide to the Ancient Egyptian Underworld May Be Oldest Illustrated ‘Book’

Katherine J. Wu

In ancient Egypt, death wasn’t merciful enough to end one’s troubles. The afterlife was fraught with peril, too, and the dead had to contend with something of a spiritual obstacle course to reach Rostau, the glorious realm of Osiris, god of death.

At least two paths to Rostau existed: one by land, another by sea. Both were arduous enough to require a guidebook, the aptly named Book of Two Ways. This intricate map of the ancient Egyptian underworld may be the first illustrated “book” in history. And archaeologists have now unearthed a 4,000-year-old-copy—possibly the oldest version ever found, reports Franz Lidz for the New York Times.

The find, described in a recent paper in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, nudges the history of ancient literature backward in time, underscoring the dedication and sophistication with which these individuals tackled the enigma of their own mortality.

Between the monumental Pyramids of Giza and the beautifully illustrated Book of the Dead, a religious revolution took place. For the first time in human history detailed accounts of the afterlife and the rituals to transcend death first appear engraved in the twilight of the Old Kingdom. Known as the Pyramid texts, these elaborate rituals, spells and incantations detail how the Soul can be made immortal, by traveling with the Divine Sun through the night, reborn in Osiris, before being emerging between the thighs of the Sky Goddess Nut. The Pyramid texts represent the earliest and most sustained literature on the Afterlife and are among the oldest religious literature in the world.