Coffin Texts

The vast funerary corpus of Egypt's Middle Kingdom, painted on coffins to carry the dead through the underworld.

Core Characteristics

• In use from about 2100 BC, expanding the royal Pyramid Texts to nobles and commoners alike.
• Over a thousand spells, guiding the dead past the hazards and gates of the Duat.
• Introduced the Text of the Two Ways, the first map of the netherworld's roads.

Related Concepts & Sources

Egyptian, Pyramid Texts, Book of the Dead