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Whoa, this sounds sooo COOL! ~ Sabina -----Original Message----- From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Caroline Tully Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2010 10:57 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] NEWS: Book of the Dead exhibit at the BM Subject: [agade] NEWS: Book of the Dead exhibit at the BM From <http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dr-burkhard-backes-these- beautiful-scrolls-shed-light-on-the-mysteries-of-egyptian-culture-2003685.ht ml>: ============================================================================ ========= British Museum to recreate Egyptian journey to the afterlife Museum to stage first international exhibition of Egyptian books of the dead Adam Gabbatt Egyptian afterlife exhibition to be staged at British Museum The heart of the scribe Ani is weighed by Anubis, the jackal-headed god of embalming, c 1275 BC, one of the challenges that a person's spirit faced on the journey to the afterlife in ancient Egypt and featured in the British Museum's main exhibition this autumn. Photograph: British Museum/PA It doesn't sound like an ideal day out: a journey punctuated by encounters with crocodiles, snakes and demons, which culminates with your heart being weighed against the balance of good and evil. These were the ordeals the ancient Egyptians believed they faced en route to the afterlife. Now the route is being recreated for visitors to the British Museum. Announced today, the museum's showpiece autumn exhibition will draw on its "unparalleled" collection of Egyptian books of the dead, collections of spells provided to help the departed find their way. The exhibition, Journey Through the Afterlife, which is supported by BP, will include pieces from museums in France and the US in what its curator said was the first international exhibition of such manuscripts. The collection, including items used for more than 1,500 years between 1600BC and AD100, has never been exhibited in its entirety before, despite the British Museum having owned it for more than 100 years. Some of the papyrus scrolls may never be shown at the museum again, Dr John Taylor warned today. "In recent years, we've learnt a lot about Egyptian pigments and how sensitive they are," the curator said. "It used to be thought that they were pretty indestructible, but we've been carrying out tests now and what we find is that some of them are very, very subject to fading, so we really have to consider the long-term future of these objects - our first duty is to protect these things for the future. "If that means that, for the moment, we don't display them, then we might hope that at some future date, a solution to this issue might be found, but we have to make sure that we do not expose them to unnecessary light." A highlight of the exhibition will be the opportunity to follow the journey taken by an Egyptian after death. Luckily, visitors will face nothing more daunting than video and audio recreations of the challenges. They will be guided by the longest book of the dead in the world - a full 37 metres (121ft) of papyrus - believed to have been written to accompany the daughter of a high priest on her journey to the afterlife. Egyptians believed this was a treacherous journey where one could encounter all manner of adversaries. The book of the dead would act as more of a manual than a complete text, complete with diagrams of the potential foes the deceased could come across and the spells that could defeat them. The critical point in the journey would come with the ritual of the "weighing of the heart", in which the organ would be measured against the principle of truth and justice. This process was known as maat. If the heart weighed in favourably, the deceased would be allowed into the afterlife - an Egyptian idyll with flowing rivers, bright sun, and several helpers, called shabtis, to attend to each arrival. If the heart's mass was deemed to be substandard, the individual's soul was condemned to destruction at the hands of the monstrous "devourer". This eventuality could be avoided, however, by paying a scribe extra to write a spell into one's book of the dead that would trick the scales, tipping the balance in one's favour - raising interesting questions about the importance Egyptians placed on ethics and morality during life. The exhibition runs from 4 November until 6 March.