Talk:Coffin Texts

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Book of the Two Ways

Hi, I amended the caption to pic inserted to ref Book of the Two Ways because that is what is shown. the BotTW is not just the map but also the texts and other illustrations (see Lesko) and as such forms a part of the Coffin Texts. The Coffin Texts are a kind pseudo collection which never appeared in the set sequence we can read in Faulkner et al (rather as the Pyramid texts are) and are presented confusingly as if they can be. Anyway I don't have a real problem with a caption as amended but I do feel it is a little misleading now and the pic would sit better in the section on the BotTW. Apepch7 (talk) 16:25, 14 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Humm… I sort of see the point, but the Book of Two Ways is a part of the Coffin Texts, insofar as the Coffin Texts are a unified collection at all (and scholars do mostly treat them as a unified collection, which is why we have this article). The source I have on hand for the Coffin Texts says that they "appear on all six inner faces of the coffins, and in some cases they can be shown to proceed from one side to its opposite parallel wall, and in other cases from one to another contingent sides, while the tops and bottoms generally seem independent."(The Oxford Essential Guide to Egyptian Mythology, p. 142)Therefore the Book of Two Ways, appearing on the bottom of this coffin, probably doesn't extend to the sides. Therefore the photograph shows several different parts of the Coffin Texts, even if the Book of Two Ways is most prominent, and demonstrates their presence on all inside panels of the coffin. I can't think of a better way to take a picture of the Coffin Texts as a whole, and I'm sure we don't have a better picture available to us (unless you'd rather see the coffin opened up like this or this, which is not an accurate representation of its intended shape and is less recognizably a coffin). The ideal image for the Book of Two Ways section would be a face-on photo of just the bottom panel, but we don't have that, either. Perhaps the image could serve both purposes, with an additional sentence in the caption: "The Book of Two Ways appears on the bottom"? A. Parrot (talk) 01:49, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No I'm happy with what you have done - I just wanted to explain why I made the amendment. I agree about the 'cut up' version in those photos - I can see why they cut up that coffin but I can't imagine doing it! The title 'sarg des nacht' I'm assuming this is in a German museum somewhere - do you know where? I think the point about all these texts (Coffin and Pyramid) is that they have to be 'read' in the context - such as which part of the Coffin they are on e.g. base of Coffin = earth/Geb and lid =Nut/sky , when the translators present them as a continuous series then you loose meaning. I read an interesting article about cognitive mapping which explains how all these things including the tomb are cosmological models of the Egyptian 'world view'.Apepch7 (talk) 10:52, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Now I look closely the base of the 'sarg des nacht' coffin looks like a decan star list.Apepch7 (talk) 10:57, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]