THE BOOK OF THE DEAD FRAGMENTS IN THE COLLECTION OF THE INSTITUTE OF MANUSCRIPTS OF THE VERNADSKY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF UKRAINE (F. VIII, NO. 565/15): A PRELIMINARY PUBLICATION

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  M. Tarasenko

Abstract

Previously unknown and the only ones in Kyiv fragments of the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead that are stored in the Institute of Manuscripts of the Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine are in the focus of the article. These fragments belong to the Funds of the “St. Volodymyr Kyiv University” and are an extremely destroyed part of the papyrus of the Book of the Dead. According to the description of the document it is known that the papyrus was extracted from the Egyptian mummy in 1825 by a certain “Felix Rune”. A piece of mummy shroud is also kept together with the papyrus fragments, apparently from the mummy with which the roll was found. It is difficult to identify this person, but most likely it was one of the Barons of the von Rönne Family, known as Felix I. Baron von Rönne (born in 1750) and his son Felix II. Baron von Rönne (born in 1797). Presumably, this papyrus and the mummy shroud were donated by the representatives of this Family to the library of the Kremenets (Volyn) lyceum in 1826–1830, and later as a part of other oriental manuscripts, in 1834 they were sent to the Library of St. Volodymyr University in Kyiv. The Kyiv fragments contain extracts of the Hieratic text and small fragments of monochrome vignettes. The papyrus is dated by the Ptolemaic period. In total there are thirty-six fragments, the largest of which has a size 5,1 × 3,5 cm and the smallest is 0,7 × 0,6 cm. As fragments are mostly very small, it is not always possible to determine which chapters they contain. The name and titles of the roll owner has not been preserved, but it is known that it was a woman. At this time, the parts of six Chapters of the Book of the Dead are identified on the Kyiv papyrus: 87, 89, 93, 99, 113 і 120.The vignette of the Chapter 87 (image of the serpent Sa-ta) is the only reliably identified from all remaining parts of the pictures, but it can be also assumed the presence of vignettes fragments of Chapters 90 and 122. The stylistic and textual analysis shows that it was created in the late 4th – early 3rd c. BC in Thebes and belongs to the “Louvre N. 3079” textual tradition by M. Jr., Mosher. It is the third female roll for this group.

How to Cite

Tarasenko, M. (2018). THE BOOK OF THE DEAD FRAGMENTS IN THE COLLECTION OF THE INSTITUTE OF MANUSCRIPTS OF THE VERNADSKY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF UKRAINE (F. VIII, NO. 565/15): A PRELIMINARY PUBLICATION. The Oriental Studies, (81), 100-129. https://doi.org/10.15407/skhodoznavstvo2018.81.100
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