Author Description

The whole many-sided civilization of the Ancient Egyptians is portrayed in the brightest colors in the poetry, the books of ritual, the hieratic inscriptions, the tablets, papyri, and hieroglyphics which are brought to light in this book of Egyptian Literature. The Book of the Dead is the modern name of an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BC) to around 50 BC. The original Egyptian name for the text, is translated as "Book of Coming Forth by Day". The text consists of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Underworld, and into the afterlife. Also included are the Royal Letters collection and The Amarna letters (sometimes Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets) are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the NewKingdom. The letters were found in Upper Egypt at Amarna, the modern name for the Egyptian capital of Akhetaten (el-Amarna), founded by pharaoh Akhenaten (1350s - 1330s BC) during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt.