The Funeral Papyrus of Iouiya

The funeral papyrus of Iouiya is a good specimen of the Book of the Dead of the XVlIIth dynasty. We know its date. It is of the time of Amenophis III, the last king before the religious revolution of Akhouenaten. It measures 9 metres 70 c.m. and contains forty chapters, one of which is unknown. It is written, like all the copies of the Book of the Dead of that time, in linear hieroglyphics, which are not perfect, but which are a transition towards hieratic. The vignettes illustrating a certain number of the chapters are beautifully drawn and coloured. It certainly is a choice document, which is in accordance with the high rank of the deceased. Judging from the papyri of that epoch which have been preserved, we can see that what gave to those documents their value in the estimation of the old Egyptians, was in the first place the vignettes. It was that which they mostly cared for; the text might be more or less neglected, since probably a few only of the people who saw it could read it; besides, the scribes knew that it was to be hidden in a tomb, where only the ka would look at it. Generally speaking, the beauty of the vignettes runs counter to the goodness of the text; in papyri written with care and by copyists who were not mere workmen; such as those of Nebseni or Nu, in the British Museum, the vignettes, though well drawn, have no colour, they are less numerous, and are something secondary. This papyrus is an exception in that way; though being beautifully illustrated, the text is good. Nevertheless, the parts which are inferior to the rest of the document are precisely those where there are beautiful vignettes. As they were made first, and as sufficient space had not been reserved for the text to which they belonged, there are omissions, or the chapter is sometimes curtailed.