A private San Diego collection, California purchased prior to 1980, from the
collection of E. W. Wall, director of the American center of the
international photographic archive of Papyri.
A large fragment of the top
of Chapter 23 from the Book of the Dead on papyrus. The section is written in
black ink and includes simple illustrations as well along with staining of
the papyrus with bitumen on the edges of the text. The original text from
Chapter 23 reads "r n wn r / wHa r.i in ptH / di ntwt iry r.i in nTr niwt.i
/ ii r.f DHwty mH apr m HkAw.f / wHa.n.f n.i xt r stS irw r.i / xsf drty.i
itm wd.f sn m sAwt r.i / wn r.i wp r.i in ptH m mDAt.f twy nt biA / wp.n.f r
n nTrw im.s / ink sxmt wADyt / Hms.i Hr gs imy-wrt aAt m pt / ink sAHyt
Hrt-ib bAw iwnw / ir HkAw nb mdt nbt Dd r.i / aHa nTrw r.s psDt dmd.ti
psDwt.s" (Formula for opening the mouth / My mouth is released by Ptah,
/ the bonds of my mouth are caused to be unfettered by the god of my city. /
Thoth comes fully equipped with his words of power, / and has released for me
the items belonging to Seth, the bonds of my mouth, / My hands are moved by
Atum, he puts them forward as the guard of my mouth. / My mouth is opened, my
mouth is parted by Ptah with that tool of iron, / with which he has opened
the mouth of the gods. / I am Sekhmet Wadjyt, / I sit beside the great
starboard in the sky, / I am Sahyt amids the powers of Iunu. / As for any
words of power, any speech uttered against me, / May the gods stand against
them, the assembled Ennead and its Enneads. ) It is possible in this case, as
is often the case in Late Dynastic and Ptolemaic inscriptions of any length
that the text shows errors or mistakes in copying the text from earlier
versions, as often scribes at this time were illiterate or only partially literate.
Extremely rare and of serious interest to any collector interested in the
funerary practices or magical encantations of Ancient Egypt.