A Curious Invitation present London Month of the Dead
THE ETERNAL JOURNEY
The Egyptian Book of the Dead with Dr Anna Garnett
Thursday 10th October 2019 at 7:00 pm

Explaining what happens to us when we die is one of the principal functions of religions. Some of them even go as far as issuing detailed guidance as to what we can expect on our voyage to the next world.

“The Book of Emerging Forth into the Light” was a series of magic spells complied by Egyptian priests over 1000s of years to help the dead soul traverse the underworld and attain the afterlife. A papyrus copy would be placed in the tombs of Pharaohs. Over the years the privilege began to be accorded to lower mortals too. Prussian Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius produced the first modern translation of these incantations in 1842 and it was he who coined the name “The Book of the Dead”. In her talk, Egyptologist and curator of the Petrie Museum ANNA GARNETT will explore the spells, prayers and incantations contained within this collection of funerary texts paying special attention to the orignal manuscript held in the Petrie Museum.

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Dr Anna Garnett

Dr Anna Garnett is the curator at the Petrie Museum where she cares for the 80,600 Egyptian and Sudanese objects in the collection. She developed an interest in ancient Egypt at a young age which led her to study Egyptology at the University of Liverpool. She is also a graduate of the HLF-funded ‘Future Curators’ Programme, part of the ‘Skills for the Future’ initiative, and over the past 15 years has worked with local, national and University museum collections in the UK, including the curation of permanent, temporary and touring exhibitions.





The Venue - Highgate Cemetery