The Mummy: A Handbook of Egyptian Funerary Archaeology

Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (1857-1934) was a prominent English Egyptologist who was Keeper of the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum between 1893 and 1924. He was knighted in 1920 for his contributions to Egyptology. First published in 1893, this book contains a detailed discussion of the funerary rituals and objects which were used in Egyptian religion to allow the deceased to live again in the Duat (the afterlife). Budge provides detailed descriptions of common religious texts, religious rites and the major deities involved in these. He also includes interpretations for other artefacts which commonly accompanied a burial, including shabiti statues and amulets. His comprehensive study represents the state of Egyptian funerary archaeology before major archaeological finds of the twentieth century challenged its interpretations. The text reissued here is taken from the expanded and revised second edition, published in 1925.