A Study On The Pyramid Texts Of Pharaoh Unas Of The Fifth Dynasty

Pyramids are the tombs of Pharaohs in ancient Egypt,and the words found in their burial chamber,antechamber and passage were called the Pyramid Texts by modern scholars.The Pyramid Texts are the earliest ancient Egyptian funeral document,a series of magic incantations relating to funeral ceremony and praying for immortality.It is the textual description and guidance for the dead to enter the underworld and achieve eternity.The Pyramid Texts are all found in pyramids belonging to eleven kings and queens of the Old Kingdom.It is first attested in the pyramid of the Unas,the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty.It is written on the west wall of the burial chamber for the protection of sarcophagus and mummies against snakes and scorpions,the southern and northern walls of the antechamber and the passage for the offering ritual and the resurrection ritual,and the list of offerings inscribed on the east wall of the burial chamber.All of this text consists of 226 incantations,it is relatively short,comparing with the latter,but already complete in framework.These incantations not only played a role in the Old Kingdom as the guidance for the dead pharaoh to enter the underworld,but also inspired of the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom and the Book of the Dead of the New Kingdom.The Coffin Texts in the Middle Kingdom inherited the contents of the Pyramid Texts and mixed with folk witchcraft incantations.The incantations are engraved on the coffins,mummy masks or walls of the tomb chamber,and a small amount of them are written on papyrus and placed in the coffin.Coffin Texts are not only used by the Pharaohs,but also by officials and ordinary people.Their main function is to guide and protect the dead from harm in the underworld.The Book of the Dead of the New Kingdom is the mixture and development of the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts.It not only covers a wide range of subjects,including death and the afterlife,praise and defense,but also had a wide range of clients,people from different social classes and economic conditions can choose a manuscript of different length that they can afford as a part of necessaries for burial.The Pyramids Text not only provide us with an opportunity to have a glimpse of the funeral rites and customs in Ancient Egypt,but also provide us with the possibility to study the religious traditions and ideological inertia in Ancient Egypt.The funeral ceremony of ancient Egyptians reflects their imagination of the afterlife: the underworld,DUAT,is a dangerous and unknown place,but in the cosmos of Maat,all life will be eternal.Both the worship of the sun god Re and the worship of Osiris were the veneration and yearning for order in Ancient Egyptians.Many western scholars have made great achievements in the translation and annotation of the Pyramid Text,of which the version in the pyramid of Unas is the prototype.And there are translations in domestic academic circles.However,the text analysis that puts the text under the ritual interaction conjecture has not yet appeared,and this logical deduction may have a completely new perspective for the understanding of the Unas Pyramid Text,even all the Pyramid Texts,and the Coffin Text and the Book of the Dead.