The Greenfield papyrus is a

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a d ...

that contains an ancient Egyptian ''

Book of the Dead The ''Book of the Dead'' ( egy, 𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤, ''rw n(y)w prt m hrw(w)'') is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom ...

'' and is named after Mrs. Edith Mary Greenfield, who presented it to the Trustees of the British Museum in May 1910. Now in the collections of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

, London, it is one of the longest papyri in existence with a length of 37 metres.

Manuscript

The Greenfield Papyrus is a papyrus roll with an original length of about 37 meters and about 47 cm wide. Nowadays, the manuscript is divided into 96 pieces. The manuscript contains both text and drawings, the text is written on the recto side and in hieratic script and partly in hieroglyphs. The

includes a series of hymns, litanies, tributes and homages. The papyrus is dated to between the 950s and 930s BC during Egypt's Twenty-first Dynasty. The manuscript describes the burial of the priest Pinudjem II and his wife

Neskhons Neskhons (“She Belongs to Khons”), once more commonly known as “Nsikhonsou”, was a noble lady of the 21st Dynasty of Egypt. Biography She was the daughter of Smendes II and Takhentdjehuti, and wed her paternal uncle, High Priest Pinedje ...

's daughter Nesitanebetashru around the year 930 BC. One of the scenes shows when the god Shu (God of Air) helps Nut (God of Sky) to divide heaven and earth, represented as

Geb Geb was the Egyptian god of the earth and a mythological member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. He could also be considered a father of snakes. It was believed in ancient Egypt that Geb's laughter created earthquakes and that he allowed crops t ...

(God of Earth). Among the scenes are also parts of the creation of the world according to the Egyptian creation myth with the god Atum in the centre.

Provenance

It is not known when and how the papyrus was discovered but the English collector Greenfield acquired the manuscript around 1880. The site of discovery is believed to be the necropolis of

Deir el-Bahri Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri ( ar, الدير البحري, al-Dayr al-Baḥrī, the Monastery of the North) is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of ...

. After Greenfield's death, his widow Edith Mary Greenfield donated the manuscript in 1910 to the British Museum, the papyrus archive number is BM EA 10554-87. In 1912, Keeper of the Egyptian collection at the museum, Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge published a translation in the book "The Greenfield papyrus in the British Museum - The funerary papyrus of Princess Nesitanebtȧshru, daughter of Painetchem II and Nesi-Khensu, and priestess of Ȧmen-R̄a at Thebes, about B.C. 970"'.

References

External links

© Trustees of the British Museu
British Museum Collection Database Search (data retrieved shows 96 separate entries)
retrieved 18:06GMT 2.10.11 Egyptian papyri containing images Ancient Egyptian objects in the British Museum {{papyrus-stub

Manuscript

Provenance

See also

References

External links