The main corpora of ancient Egyptian funerary texts (in order of associated time period) are: the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts, the Book of the Dead, and the underworld books. (It was most likely that these texts found in the tombs came from a wider, pre-made selection, though no library or collection has been found containing them (Lichtheim 1976:119)). Throughout these texts, the overall target is the same: the deceased must safely reach the afterlife, bypassing any obstacles through means of magical knowledge. However, they differ in methodology, which underlying themes are emphasized, and so on. Over time, a complex narrative of what happens to the deceased emerges. Religion, however, did not exist within a vacuum. I will argue that as the social and political history of ancient Egypt grew, they deeply influenced how the funerary texts developed as well. I will summarize the overall themes of history by kingdom and connect them to their temporally-related funerary
The main corpora of ancient Egyptian funerary texts (in order of associated time period) are: the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts, the Book of the Dead, and the underworld books. (It was most likely that these texts found in the tombs came from a wider, pre-made selection, though no library or collection has been found containing them (Lichtheim 1976:119)). Throughout these texts, the overall target is the same: the deceased must safely reach the afterlife, bypassing any obstacles through means of magical knowledge. However, they differ in methodology, which underlying themes are emphasized, and so on. Over time, a complex narrative of what happens to the deceased emerges. Religion, however, did not exist within a vacuum. I will argue that as the social and political history of ancient Egypt grew, they deeply influenced how the funerary texts developed as well. I will summarize the overall themes of history by kingdom and connect them to their temporally-related funerary