The beliefs about the Beliefs About the Afterlife are known best from texts written for the dead. The oldest are the Pyramid Texts. They appear in the late Old Kingdom, after the age of the great sun kings you met in The Sun Kings and the Pyramid Texts.
Key idea
The Pyramid Texts are the oldest Egyptian religious texts: spells carved inside pyramids from Unas, at the end of the 5th Dynasty, onward, to help the king rise to the sky.
What and where
- The spells were carved in columns of hieroglyphs on the walls of the burial chamber and the rooms and passages near it, often filled with blue or green paint.
- Unas’s pyramid at Saqqara is the first. The kings of the 6th Dynasty, some of their queens, and a king of the 8th Dynasty followed.
- They were not decoration for visitors: once the tomb was sealed, no living person was meant to read them.
- Kurt Sethe published them in 1908–1922 and numbered them as "utterances"; scholars still use his numbers.
Why it works
Why carve spells by the body? Words were believed to act. Carved in stone beside the king, the spells would go on working for him forever, even if no priest came. Many speak as if the rites are happening now: the king is purified, fed, raised up; he climbs to the sky, sails with Ra, joins the stars that never set, and is Osiris. Some spells are older than Unas and may have been spoken at royal funerals long before they were carved.
Worked example: Dating the first texts
Khufu’s reign ended c. 2566 BC, and Unas began to reign c. 2375 BC. About how long after Khufu do the Pyramid Texts begin?
- 2566 − 2375 = 191 years.
- 191 years is about two centuries.
Answer: About two centuries.
Worked example: Where to look
A visitor enters the Great Pyramid of Khufu expecting to see the Pyramid Texts. What will she find?
- Khufu’s chambers have no religious texts.
- The texts begin with Unas, at Saqqara.
- She should visit Unas’s pyramid instead.
Answer: No texts; they start with Unas.
Common mistake
Thinking the Great Pyramid has texts inside. The Pyramid Texts start about two centuries later, with Unas. Quick check: Khufu is 4th Dynasty; Unas ends the 5th.