Book of the Dead Recreation on real papyrus from Egypt. It is over 14 feet long and about 12 inches wide. This Book of the Dead is a recreation of the Papyrus Hunefer. The Book of the Dead was part of a tradition of funerary texts which consisting of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife and written by many priests over a period of about 1000 years. The most famous part is the Judgment scene. The deceased would be judged in the "Weighing of the Heart" ritual. The deceased was led by the god Anubis into the presence of Osiris. There, the dead person swore that he had not committed any sin from a list of 42 sins, reciting a text known as the "Negative Confession". Then the dead person's heart was weighed on a pair of scales, against the goddess Maat, who embodied truth and justice. Maat was often represented by an ostrich feather. If the scales balanced, this meant the deceased had led a good life. Anubis would take them to Osiris and they would find their place in the afterlife. If the heart was out of balance with Maat, then another fearsome beast called Ammit, the Devourer, stood ready to eat it and put the dead person's afterlife to an end. See Wikipedia.