Papyrus of Bakay: Book of the Dead

This fragment of an Egyptian papyrus scroll is divided into a narrative register above a textual register. In the upper register, a dark-skinned, seated figure faces left toward a table topped with four upright cobras (uraei). Next to the seated figure stands a ram-headed deity holding a tall flabellum (fan) near a rectangular yellow portal or doorway. To the right of the portal, a guardian figure with a stylized head, potentially feline or jackal-headed, stands holding large curved knives in each hand. The lower register consists of vertical columns of black hieroglyphic script on a beige papyrus ground, interrupted by a square inset featuring a single, detailed falcon standing in profile.

This document is a funerary text belonging to the 'Book of the Dead' (Spells of Going Forth by Day) tradition, intended to assist the deceased, the royal nanny Bakay, in navigating the afterlife and passing through the gates of the underworld.