Amduat Papyrus Inscribed for Tiye

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The lady Tiye, a singer in the cult of the god Amun-Re, commissioned this papyrus for her burial, believing that its contents would assist her in entering the afterlife. She has chosen a style that includes little text; instead, her papyrus condenses complex mythological conceptions into abbreviated scenes. The vignette on the right shows Tiye standing before Osiris, principal god of the Netherworld (Duat). At center right, she worships the sun god in the form of a ram, and at center left she stands over an offering table holding a tray of unguent jars, apparently directed toward the various inhabitants of the Duat depicted on the left.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art