Book of the Dead, Papyrus of Nakht: Worshiping Osiris
Provenance unknown
New Kingdom, late Eighteenth or early Nineteenth Dynasty (about 1336-1294 B.C.)
Papyrus, painted, 15-5/8 x 36-3/4 in.
EA 10471/2, acquired in 1888, purchases via Sir E.A.W. Budge (cat. no. 100)
©Trustees of The British Museum, Courtesy AFA

Here, the military official Nakht and his musician wife Tjuiu worship Osiris, King of the Afterworld, and Maat, the goddess of truth. Behind the gods stand the mountains of the West, which symbolized the land of the dead. Above, the arms of the sky goddess receive the sun as it sets. Nakht and Tjuiu appear to be on their earthly estate, which includes a house and an artificial pond surrounded by trees. A grapevine reaches out from the corner of the pool toward Osiris, linking the two worlds of the living and the dead in a most unusual way. Osiris’s face has been colored green to represent his association with plant germination and growth.