The
Book of the Dead is an
ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the
New Kingdom (around 1550 BCE) to around 50 BCE.
[1] The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated
rw nw prt m hrw[2] is translated as
Book of Coming Forth by Day.
[3] Another translation would be
Book of Emerging Forth into the Light. "Book" is the closest term to describe the loose collection of texts
[4] consisting of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the
Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife and written by many priests over a period of about 1000 years
(edit: from wikipedia)