Inspired by yesterday’s celebrations of World Book Day, today’s post by Becca from the Visitor Team at Manchester Museum takes a closer look at the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead… 

World Book Day – The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead

Today we will be discussing the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead – I know, I know, it’s always dead stuff with me, isn’t it?

The term ‘Book of the Dead’ is very much a modern Western invention, with a more literal translation being, ‘Spells of Coming Forth by Day’ – but that doesn’t lend itself to a catchy phrase in a film now does it?

A replica of The Book of the Dead featured in The Mummy (1999). Image courtesy of Stelter Creative Woodworks (via metmuseum.org).

And although we call it a book, it isn’t necessarily what we would recognise as a book…