The Greenfield Papyrus
- Gallery: Room 63
- Culture: 21st Dynasty; 22nd Dynasty
- Date: 950 BC - 930 BC (circa)
- Object type: papyrus
- Materials: papyrus
- Museum number: EA10554,63
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
This is "The Greenfield Papyrus," a remarkable funerary work from ancient Egypt, created during the 21st Dynasty around 950 to 930 BC. In this piece, you're looking at a scene from the Book of the Dead—specifically Spell 125—called the judgment scene. At the center, the deceased appears before the throne of Osiris, flanked by the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. Anubis weighs the heart of the deceased against Maat, the goddess of truth and justice, while Thoth observes and Ammit waits nearby. In the top right, a winged scarab appears on a boat before four seated figures. Two hieroglyphic labels in black ink identify Osiris. The papyrus itself is made from plant fiber, a material commonly used for religious and funerary texts in ancient Egypt.
See it in person
The Greenfield Papyrus is on display in Room 63 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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