The Egyptian Book of the Dead

Two Complete linen rolls of the Saite recension of the Book of the Dead (chapters 67-165), written in Hieratic script on linen, with illustrations in ink. Measurements: 28.5 cm (height) x 1160.0 cm (total length). The owner's name is Hekaemsaf (or Heka-m-saf), whose mother was named Tinetmehenet. The owner should probably be identified with Hekaemsaf, a naval officer who served as Chief of Royal Ships under Pharaoh Ahmose II [or Amasis II] (570-526 B.C.), 26th Dynasty. In 1904, the intact Persion Period tomb of Hekaesaf was discovered at Saqqara, the necropolis of the ancient capital of Memphis. In the 1920s or earlier, Robert Garrett (1875-1961), Princeton Class of 1897, purchased the manuscript from the British antiquarian bookseller Baggs Bros (London), which had mounted it on ten long boards. Garrett's gift to the Princeton University Library, 1942.