The Book of the Dead, which the Egyptians called the "Book of Coming Forth by Day", is a collection of nearly 200 spells meant to protect the dead and guide them through the dangers of the underworld. Owners chose and commissioned their own selection of spells, often with painted vignettes, and the scroll was placed in the burial.
This long papyrus was made for a man named Aaner. Among its best-known episodes are the weighing of the heart against the feather of Maat before Osiris, and the Field of Reeds, the fertile paradise where the blessed dead would live forever.
