Book of the Dead, in Heiratic, section of linen wrapping [Egypt, probably fourth century BC.]

Book of the Dead, written for the deceased Anchhap, son of Djedher and Shepsepedet, part of chapter 17, in Middle Egyptian in Heiratic script, decorated manuscript on section of linen mummy wrapping[Egypt (perhaps El-Lisht, south of Cairo), early Ptolemaic (probably fourth century BC.)] Long and thin linen fragment, with single column of 17 lines in hieratic, a small hole and slight wear in places, overall in good condition, 170 by 620mm.; set in glass, and in fitted case Provenance:1. Produced for use in the burial of an Egyptian nobleman or official named Anchhap, who perhaps lived in the region around modern Cairo: the Bonhams catalogue of the sister fragments records their reported excavation at El-Lisht.2. Almost certainly once owned and sold by the roguish Luxor antiquities dealer, Toudros Boulos (also Tawdros, Todrous and other variants: see M.L. Bierbrier, Who Was Who in Egyptology, 3rd ed., 1995, p. 417), a Copt who used his position as the Prussian and then German Consul in Luxor to sell antiquities to a wide range of European and American private clients and institutions, alongside a sideline in metalwork forgeries (produced through his training in early life as a silversmith). His son, Mohareb Toudrus took over the consulship and the family business after his father's death in 1898, until his own demise in 1937. Four other closely related sections from the same mummy wrappings are known: three now in the British Museum (EA 75197; with parts of chapters 15 and 17), and another in the American private collection of the late Victor Pafundi, Jr. (1949-2018; item reproduced in B. Briers, Egyptian Mummies, Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient Art, 1996, fig. 12, and including a further part of chapter 17). Usually such inscribed mummy wrappings on linen measure only 1-2 m., and so the known sections here may well be almost the entirety of the original object. Those sections now in the British Museum were offered in Bonhams, 21 October 1999, lots 383 and 384, and acquired immediately after the sale by the British Museum Friends, where their link to "Zaki Todros" and his role as consul is recorded, this later corrected in the British Museum catalogue to Toudros Boulos. It is most likely that he owned all of them at one time, dividing them up and selling them to different European and American clients.2. This fragment re-emerged on the modern market in the catalogue of Jacques Schulman, Amsterdam, his list 236 (1988), no. 6.3. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 125, acquired from Schulman in July 1988. Text:These mummy wrappings are perhaps all that survive to record the life of Anchhap, who lived in the Ptolemaic period, in the generations after Alexander the Great's seizure of power over Egypt and installation of his general Ptolemy there as sub-ruler. The practise of writing sections of the Book of Dead directly onto the linen wrappings of the deceased began during the 30th or Sebennytian dynasty (379-343 BC.) but only became common during the Ptolemaic period (305-30 BC.). It probably descends from the earliest history of the Book of the Dead, and the practise of wrapping the body in an inscribed and illustrated shroud. Linen as a media is not as forgiving as papyrus or parchment and the quality of such examples varies greatly. That here is in a fine hieratic script, suggesting an accomplished scribe. The text here is usually named the 'Coming Forth by Day Triumphant over All Enemies', and is one of the longest and most interesting individual compositions preserved within the Egyptian Book of the Dead. It sets out a long series of religious sayings narrated by the creator-god, within a structure of internal commentary and glossing questions followed by answers, in the form: "I am that great cat beside whom the ished-tree was split in Iunu on that night of active battle, and making the guard against the rebels on that day on which the enemies of the Lord of All were destroyed. What does it mean? That great cat beside whom the ished-tree was split in Iunu is Ra himself, called Cat when Sia said of him 'that is how he is, by what he has done' and his name became Cat". Published:Online as part of the Das Altägyptische Totenbuchprojekt, Bonn (but note wrongly recorded there as among the holdings in Oslo), and TM 114017.