History

The Coffin Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary spells and rituals that were written on coffins beginning in the First Intermediate Period and continued to be used into the Middle Kingdom period (2055-1650 BCE). They were painted on the burial coffins of the First Intermediate period and Middle Kingdom, and were partially derived from the earlier Pyramid Texts, which were reserved for royal use only. The Coffin Texts were the primary sources of the Book of the Dead, which was in prominent use during the New Kingdom period.

The Coffin Texts contain references to the sun god Ra traveling across the sky in a flying boat, as well as other supernatural boats such as the "boat of millions of years" and the "boat of the night". Over 1,000 spells have been recorded, and collectively, these spells are known as the Coffin Texts. Like the earlier Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts indicate that there was more than one possible destination for the deceased. They might join the sun-god Re in the sky or pass into the underworld of Osiris.

The Coffin Texts were primarily intended to protect and guide the dead on their way to the afterlife, and were an expression of the Egyptian desire for immortality and the deep influence of the mortuary religion of the pharaohs. The texts were in use from the beginning of the First Intermediate Period, although the earliest examples from the necropolis of Balat in el Kharga Oasis are tentatively dated to the end of the Old Kingdom.

In summary, the Coffin Texts are a collection of funerary spells and rituals that date back to the Middle Kingdom period and contain references to the sun god Ra traveling across the sky in a flying boat, as well as other supernatural boats. The texts were primarily intended to protect and guide the dead on their way to the afterlife and were an expression of the Egyptian desire for immortality and the deep influence of the mortuary religion of the pharaohs.

Research

People

Raymond O. Faulkner - an Egyptologist who made significant contributions to the study of the coffin texts, including the publication of the first complete English translation of the texts in 1972.

Adriaan de Buck - a Dutch Egyptologist who studied the Coffin Texts and provided the first full edition of the texts in 1935.

Richard Parkinson - a British Egyptologist who has studied the coffin texts extensively and has published many works on the subject, including a translation of the texts in 1996.

R. O. F. Goelet - an Egyptologist who has conducted extensive research on the coffin texts and has published several works on the subject, including "The Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt" in 1999.

Wolfram Grajetzki - a German Egyptologist who has conducted research on the coffin texts and has published several works on the subject, including "Court Officials of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom" in 2009.

Salima Ikram - an Egyptian archaeologist and Egyptologist who has studied the coffin texts and has published several works on the subject, including "Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt" in 2015.

Jan Assmann - a German Egyptologist who has conducted research on the coffin texts and has published several works on the subject, including "Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt" in 2005.

Hartwig Altenmüller - a German Egyptologist who has conducted extensive research on the coffin texts and has published several works on the subject, including "Das Buch vom Tage des Osiris: Eine kritische Edition der mittleren und späten Totenbuch-Handschriften" in 2003.

James P. Allen - an American Egyptologist who has studied the coffin texts and has published several works on the subject, including "The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts" in 2005.

Alexandre Piankoff - a Russian-born Egyptologist who studied the coffin texts and contributed to their translation and interpretation in the mid-20th century, including the publication of "The Tomb of Ramesses VI" in 1954.

Books

"The Coffin Texts Resurrected: An English Translation with Hieroglyphic Text, Volume 1" by John M. Bunker and Karen L. Pressler

"The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife" by Erik Hornun

"The Egyptian Coffin Texts" edited by Adriaan de Buck

"The Coffin Texts: Texts of Spells 1-75" by Adriaan De Buck, with hieroglyphic text and English translation

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