It is a text that is easily accessible to the general public because it has been translated and published in a number of versions, the most popular probably being that of Sir E. The object that was offered to the museum, the Book of the Dead of Nes-min, was a virtually complete example of a papyrus replete with carefully executed drawings of high artistic quality.To many people today, the Book of the Dead is considered the classic example of an ancient Egyptian religious document. The hope persisted that a better-preserved and typical ink drawing or painted section from a Book of the Dead might be found for the collection, but it was not until 1988 that this was realized in a manner as welcome as it was totally unexpected. The pieces were treated and mounted in the museum's conservation laboratory and placed on exhibition in fragmentary condition. 72.49The preserved portion reveals that the painting had been of excellent quality. Parker, a distinguished Egyptologist then on the faculty of Brown University, donated some small fragments of what had once been a remarkable Book of the Dead of the New Kingdom (1550–1070 B.C.), but there was sadly only enough to be able to piece together the sketchy remains of a vignette depicting the deceased, a man named Ptah-hotep, with his wife (fig. It has amply been demonstrated in the literature on the history of Egyptian art that linear abstraction and the necessary skill in draftsmanship were the underlying principles and the basis for all of the visual arts in Egyptian civilization.In 1972 Richard A. Since the collection was also lacking an example of the class termed "figured ostraca" (line drawing on pot shards or limestone chips), there was scant representation of the significant art of drawing from ancient Egypt in any medium. A few fragmentary pieces of text of late date, in terms of the history of Egypt, were all the museum had to show for this important medium for the transmission of art, commerce, and religion. Although there were numerous examples of carved hieroglyphic inscriptions in the collection, for many years the DIA lacked an important example of ancient writing on papyrus. The notion that a civilization developed and maintained a complex written language based on a system of pictures holds a fascination that is undiminished today. By rare good fortune, the Book of the Dead of Nes-min is in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.2One of the defining elements of ancient Egyptian culture is the art of picture writing called hieroglyphs. These were not preserved "instead of the more usual Book of the Dead" but probably interred in addition to it. It doubtless would have been included in the tomb as a part of the group of documents mentioned. 1/2 (2000): pp 20–31) At the end of the fourth century B.C., a Theban priest and scribe named Nesmin, who held numerous positions without ever becoming a member of the upper hierarchy, took with him to the tomb some of his own books instead of the more usual Book of the Dead.Unknown to the author of the above passage, written in 1997, 1 a Book of the Dead prepared for this priest named Nes-min does indeed exist. Peck(As published in the Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 74, no. Peck - PAPYRUS OF NES MIN THE PAPYRUS OF NES-MIN: AN EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEADDetroit Institute of Arts Acc.
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