“On the papyrus of the dancer of Amen named Tahemenmut, the journey of the deceased in the afterlife is depicted. After making an offering to the sun god Re-Harakhty, the deceased is admitted to the company of the gods of the solar cycle, symbolized by the scene in which a sun-worshipping baboon pays homage to the solar barque emerging at dawn from behind the Theban Red Hill.

In the next scene, Tahemenmut herself pays tribute to the gods and demons inhabiting the afterlife. The papyrus is dominated by solar beliefs, and the images on it—especially those from the third, longest scene—show clear connections with the decoration of royal tombs from the 20th dynasty. In these, one can recognize inspiration from one of the most important royal funerary books: the Solar Litany.

At the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period, when Thebes was ruled by priests of Amen related to the 21st Dynasty reigning in Tanis, guides to the afterlife—which until the end of the New Kingdom were reserved for pharaohs—began to be used by the clergy of Amen. They were placed on sarcophagi and richly illustrated papyri, now known as mythological papyri. Their role, like all funerary books, was to help the deceased achieve immortality.

The text on Tahemenmut’s papyrus is written in cursive hieroglyphs: a handwritten, outlined form of the hieroglyphic script, used from the Middle Kingdom until the Third Intermediate Period to record religious texts on papyrus.”

Translated from the National Museum in Warsaw website, originaly written by Joanna Aksamit