Potent symbols, sacred words, and divine protection helped ancient Egyptians transition from the earthly realm to an eternal existence. Interactions between mortals and the gods were depicted on funerary objects including papyri, like this example made for temple singer Tayu-henut-Mut (\u201cthe mistress of [the goddess] Mut\u201d).<\/p>\n
This papyrus shows Tayu-henut-Mut standing with raised hands before an offering table, praising the enthroned god Osiris, ruler of the afterlife. Behind Osiris a scribe has carefully copied spells from the Book of Going Forth by Day. First appearing during the New Kingdom (about 1550 BCE), this religious text is better known today as the Book of the Dead, because scrolls were buried with their owners. Tayu-henut-Mut\u2019s copy includes five spells selected from nearly 200 known options to aid in her journey to eternity, including one for \u201ccausing a man to remember his name.\u201d Egyptians believed that one would cease to exist in the afterlife if their name was forgotten or no longer spoken among the living.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"24.5 \u00d7 101 cm (9 11\/16 \u00d7 39 7\/8 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":101,"height":24,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Papyrus and pigment","inscriptions":"\u201cWords spoken by Osiris Foremost of the West, Lord of Abydos, Wenenefer, Lord of Eternity\u2026 that he might give offerings and provisions to the Osiris, the Mistress of the House and Songstress of Amun-Re, King of the Gods, Tayuhenutmut, true of voice, daughter of the scribe of the treasury Nespaherentahat, true of voice.\u201d","credit_line":"Gift of Henry H. Getty, Charles L. Hutchinson, Robert H. Fleming, and Norman W. Harris","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), 10\u201311n1, 156-9 (ill.).\n\nThomas George Allen, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: Documents in the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, Oriental Institute Publications 82 (University of Chicago Press, 1960), 3, 12-13, 60-61, 67, 289, pls. I-IV (as OIM 18039).\n\nMadeleine Bellion, \u00c9gypte ancienne. Catalogue des manuscrits hi\u00e9roglyphiques et hi\u00e9ratiques et des dessins, sur papyrus, cuir ou tissu, publi\u00e9s ou signal\u00e9s (Paris: M. Bellion, 1987), 129 (as T. Chicago OIM 18039).\n\nAndrzej Niwi\u0144ski, Studies on the Illustrated Theban Funerary Papyri of the 11th and 10th Centuries B.C. (Freiburg\/G\u00f6ttingen: Universit\u00e4tsverlag\/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1989), 304 (as Chicago 3).\n\nKarl Jansen-Winkeln, \u201cText und Sprache in der 3. Zwischenzeit. Vorarbeiten zu einer sp\u00e4tmittel\u00e4gyptischen Grammatik,\u201d \u00c4UAT 26 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1994), 265 (as A\/1.1.32, pChicago OIM 18039 = 94.180).\n\nUrsula Verhoeven, Untersuchungen zur sp\u00e4thieratischen Buchschrift (Leuven, 2001), p [footnote 10], 66, 102-225, 250, 283, 294, 323 (as Chicago, OIM Papyrus 18039).\n\nGiuseppina Lenzo Marchese, \u201cQuelques manuscrits hi\u00e9ratiques du Livre des Morts de la Troisi\u00e8me P\u00e9riode interm\u00e9diaire du mus\u00e9e \u00e9gyptien de Turin,\u201d BIFAO 102 (2002), 270 (as P. Chicago OIM 18039).\n\nLisa Swart, \u201cA Stylistic Comparison of Selected Visual Representations on Egyptian Funerary Papyri of the 21st Dynasty and Wooden Funerary Stelae of the 22nd Dynasty (c. 1069\u2013715 B.C.E.)\u201d (PhD diss., University of Stellenbosch, 2004), 114, 116, 196\u20137, 288, 300, pl. 142 (as pOIM 18039).\n\nEmily Teeter and Janet H. Johnson, eds. The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt, exh. cat. (Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2009), 19, fig. 8.\n\nEmily Cole, \"Language and Script in the Book of the Dead,\" in Foy D. Scalf, Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt (Chicago: Oriental Institue, 2017), 43, fig. 3.3.\n\nHolger Kockelmann, \"How a Book of the Dead Manuscript Was Produced,\" in Foy D. Scalf, Book of the Dead: Becoming God in Ancient Egypt (Chicago:Oriental Institue, 2017), 72, fig. 5.8.\n\nFoy D. Scalf, \"New papyri form Bab el Gasus? The prosopography and provenience of papyrus HM 84123,\" Bulletin de l'Institut Fran\u00e7ais d'Arch\u00e9ologie Orientale 125 (2025), 441-443. \n\nEmily Teeter, \u201cCat. 44 Funerary Papyrus of Tayuhenutmut,\u201d<\/em><\/a> in Ancient Egyptian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago by Emily Teeter and Ashley F. Arico, ed. Ashley F. Arico (Art Institute of Chicago, 2025).","exhibition_history":"Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 154A, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Spiritual Expressions: Art for Private Contemplation and Public Celebration, November 22, 1995 - March 17, 1996.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, When the Greeks Ruled: Egypt After Alexander the Great, October 31, 2013 - July 27, 2014.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Feb. 11, 2022 - Dec. 14, 2022.","provenance_text":"The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in Egypt, 1894; price reimbursed by Henry H. Getty, Charles L. Hutchinson, Robert H. Fleming, and Norman W. Harris.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":43,"fiscal_year":null,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":0,"color":{"h":153,"l":45,"s":3,"percentage":9.72662060837468e-5,"population":26},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Arts of Africa","department_id":"PC-1","artist_id":37541,"artist_title":"Ancient Egyptian","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[37541],"artist_titles":["Ancient Egyptian"],"category_ids":["PC-1"],"category_titles":["Arts of Africa"],"term_titles":["papyrus (fiber product)","third intermediate period","painting","painting (coating)","women","writing","twenty-first dynasty","ancient art","ancient","writing","egyptian","book","scroll","gods (deities)","Hieroglyphs","praying"],"style_id":"TM-4394","style_title":"third intermediate period","alt_style_ids":["TM-4395","TM-8542","TM-4805"],"style_ids":["TM-4394","TM-4395","TM-8542","TM-4805"],"style_titles":["third intermediate period","twenty-first dynasty","ancient","egyptian"],"classification_id":"TM-9","classification_title":"painting","alt_classification_ids":["TM-672","TM-1392","TM-11","TM-11988"],"classification_ids":["TM-9","TM-672","TM-1392","TM-11","TM-11988"],"classification_titles":["painting","writing","ancient art","book","scroll"],"subject_id":"TM-8735","alt_subject_ids":["TM-8632","TM-12066","TM-12185","TM-12734"],"subject_ids":["TM-8735","TM-8632","TM-12066","TM-12185","TM-12734"],"subject_titles":["women","writing","gods (deities)","Hieroglyphs","praying"],"material_id":"TM-3075","alt_material_ids":[],"material_ids":["TM-3075"],"material_titles":["papyrus (fiber product)"],"technique_id":"TM-4005","alt_technique_ids":[],"technique_ids":["TM-4005"],"technique_titles":["painting (coating)"],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"6cb56687-a433-ae6b-ab07-af71dd755ec9","alt_image_ids":["0648168f-c50c-9197-48b4-4824adfb7ad0"],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1894.180"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Funerary Papyrus of Tayuhenutmut"],"weight":46645,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-05-20T10:30:18-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-27T15:13:48-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-06T05:49:47-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. 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