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This chapter deals with the early history of scholarly research in the field of the Book of the Dead and its protagonists. While the names of Jean-François Champollion, Karl Richard Lepsius, and Édouard Naville are usually associated with early studies and first scholarly editions of the Book of the Dead, there were first attempts in this field as well as partial publications and early depictions even before their time. The books of the famous seventeenth-century polymath Athanasius Kircher contained several illustrations of mummy bandages and other items along with Book of the Dead texts. Other early works from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries also include first facsimiles of papyrus fragments and mummy bandages, which not only represent an essential contribution to the early research history of the Book of the Dead, but also gave the first impetus to the deciphering of the ancient Egyptian script. The monumental volumes of the Napoleonic “Description de l’Égypte” from the beginning of the nineteenth century, which include the first complete Book of the Dead facsimiles, are another important early source. After the successful deciphering of the hieroglyphs by Champollion, the first real scholarly editions of Books of the Dead—a term that was introduced by Karl Richard Lepsius with his publication of the Turin papyrus of Iufankh—could follow. These include first publications of individual documents in the form of handwritten copies or color facsimiles, a first synoptic text edition (by Édouard Naville), as well as first translations, vocabularies, and word indexes.

The first part of this chapter deals with some of the general problems in dating and distinguishing different styles and local traditions within the New Kingdom Book of the Dead material, with a special focus on the Ramesside era. The second part is devoted to the special case of Deir el-Medina, where it can be shown that this rather closed community not only developed its own specific iconographic tradition, which is quite obvious in the decorational program of their subterranean burial chambers with mainly Book of the Dead themes, but also a textual one. In other words, the versions of Book of the Dead texts and illustrations found on tomb walls, as well as those on papyri and other items of funerary equipment from Deir el-Medina, differ significantly from comparative versions produced outside this particular community, even within the Theban necropolis. These variants clearly point to a specific editing center for the Book of the Dead in Ramesside Deir el-Medina. Such factors can therefore also provide new criteria for more accurate dating and establishing a provenance for New Kingdom Book of the Dead papyri.

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