The Happy Place
Death wasn’t the end for ancient Egyptians; it was a gauntlet. The soul faced guardians, gods, the weighing of the heart against the feather of Ma’at, and the ever-present threat of Ammit waiting to devour the unworthy, with only magic to guide the soul to the Field of Reeds. This episode brings you the story of the afterlife, the Duat, and the most sophisticated collection of funerary spells the ancient world ever produced: the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.
Cover image: The weighing of Hunefer’s heart from the Papyrus of Hunefer (ca. 1275 BC). Public Domain.
Music
Purple Planet - A New World
Purple Planet - Deadlock
Purple Planet - Homecoming
Purple Planet - Reverie
Purple Planet - Sense of Loss
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
Arbeloa Borbon, Paula. “A Lasting Bond: On a Transferred Death Ritual from Ancient Cynopolis.” Spal (Sevilla) 2, no. 32 (2023): 291–304.
Austin, Anne and Marie-Lys Arnette. “Of Ink and Clay: Tattooed Mummified Human Remains and Female Figurines from Deir El-Medina.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 108, no. 1/2 (2022): 63–80.
Budge, E. A. Wallis. Egyptian Magic. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Dahms, Jan-Michael, Martin Pehal, and Harco Willems. “Ramses II Helps the Dead: An Interpretation of Book of the Dead Supplementary Chapter 166.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 100, no. 1 (2014): 395–420.
Dobson, Eleanor. Victorian Alchemy: Science, Magic and Ancient Egypt. London: University College London Press, 2022.
Dorman, Peter F. “Compositional Format and Spell Sequencing in Early Versions of the Book of the Dead.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 55 (2019): 19–53.
Eaton, Katherine. “A ‘Mortuary Liturgy’ from the ‘Book of the Dead’ with Comments on the Nature of the Ꜣḫ-Spirit.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 42, (2005): 81–94.
Gonzalez, Eliezer. “The Traditional Egyptian Antecedents of Graeco-Roman Post-Mortem Ascent.” El Futuro Del Pasado 5 (2014): 191–224.
Graves-Brown, Carolyn. Daemons and Spirits in Ancient Egypt. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2018.
Joseph, Amgad. “The Annihilation and Mutilation of Egyptian Deities in Mythological and Ritual Texts.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 78, no. 2 (2019): 239–52.
Laneri, Nicola, and Sharon R. Steadman. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Material Religion in the Ancient Near East and Egypt. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.
Mosher, Malcolm. “Theban and Memphite Book of the Dead Traditions in the Late Period.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 29 (1992): 143–72.
Ruiz, Ana. The Spirit of Ancient Egypt. New York: Algora Publishing, 2001.
Teeter, Emily. Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Von Lieven, Alexandra. “Book of the Dead, Book of the Living: BD Spells as Temple Texts.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 98, no. 1 (2012): 249–67.
