Letters to the dead explained

Letters to the Dead are a corpus of ancient Egyptian texts found from the Old Kingdom through to the Late Period.^[1] They address a deceased relative asking for help with problems of inheritance, illness or fertility.^[2]

Form

Letters to the Dead have been found on a range of materials, such as bowls, figurines, linen, papyrus, a jar stand, ostraca and stone stelae. Both men and women could be the petitioners or the deceased recipients of letters. They generally included some or all of the following components:

• Addressing the deceased by name, and often title and relationship to the petitioner,
• Greeting the deceased which took "the form of an offering formula, well-wishing, or other invocation"
• Stating the problem, which was often either inheritance, illness or fertility based,
• Petitioning for the desired outcome.

There is contention as to the exact number of extant letters, with numbers ranging from nineteen to twenty-four.^[3]

Find locations

Many of the Letters to the Dead have unknown provenance. However, of those that do, are found in cemeteries and tombs. One such example is the Qau Bowl, which was found at the head end of a burial chamber in Qau tomb 7695 along with two other uninscribed pottery vessels.^[4]

Examples

The Qau Bowl (Petrie Museum, UCL 16163)

The Qau bowl, now found in the Petrie Museum, UCL, includes two letters, on the inside and outside of the vessel. It is dated to First Intermediate Period. Both letters are written by Shepsi, one to his mother and the other to his father.^[5] On the inside of the bowl, Shepsi requests help from his father on a matter of inheritance, and on the outside to his mother on a matter of protection from illness.

• External link to the translation of the Qau Bowl

Papyrus Brooklyn (Brooklyn Museum, 37.1799 E)

The Papyrus Brooklyn, now found in the Brooklyn Museum, New York, is dated to the Late Period and is a petition from a temple worker of the temple of Amun on an issue of inheritance.^[6] It is inscribed with nineteen lines of abnormal hieratic on one side, and one line on the reverse.

• External link to images of Papyrus Brooklyn

Further reading

• Gardiner, A. H., & Sethe, K. (1928). Egyptian Letters to the Dead: mainly from the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Egypt Exploration Society. OCLC 7743694
• Gardiner, A. (1930). A New Letter to the Dead. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 16(1/2), 19-22. A New Letter to the Dead
• Harrington, N. (2013). Living with the Dead: Ancestor Worship and Mortuary Ritual in Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxbow Books. . OCLC 813220916.

Notes and References

1. Troche. Julia. 2018-09-11. Letters to the Dead. UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology. en. 1. 1.
2. Web site: Letters to the Dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20220717105329/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/literature/religious/lettersdead.html . 2022-07-17 . 2021-03-19 . www.ucl.ac.uk.
3. Book: Harrington, Nicola. Living with the dead : ancestor worship and mortuary ritual in ancient Egypt. 2013. Oxbow Books. 978-1-84217-493-7. Oxford. 34–37. 813220916.
4. Web site: Qau tomb 7695. 2021-03-19. www.ucl.ac.uk.
5. Web site: Qau tomb 7695, The Letter to the Dead of Shepsi . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20221220192804/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt//qau/tombs/7695trans.html . 2022-12-20 . 2021-03-19 . www.ucl.ac.uk.
6. Web site: Papyrus Inscribed in Abnormal Hieratic . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20220810084710/https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/118319 . 2022-08-10 . 2021-03-19 . www.brooklynmuseum.org.