Old Scroll
Gets New Home

    Imagine the tomb of a Theban nobleman buried 3,000 years ago. A scroll is buried with him, a religious document called the Amduat. Its images and hieroglyphics are instructions about how to travel through the underworld during the 12 hours of the night that begins at sunset on the day of the nobleman's death.

    Paul Mirecki, associate professor of religious studies: "The belief is that if you have all these sacred images and all these holy words, prayers and hymns, they won't be inert or static. They will have the power to bring about the person's resurrection and afterlife."

    It was thought that the person's soul would follow the sun underground, through the Earth, Mirecki says. The sun would be led by a sacred serpent. At dawn, the soul and the sun would both be shot out of the Earth and the soul would enter the afterlife.

    There are only about 35 Amduats in the world -- not every Joe or Jane Nile took one to his or her grave.

    KU now has one, thanks to John Ballard, a KU alum, and wife Cindy. They bought an Amduat at a charity auction benefiting the Kansas City, Mo., public library, and have donated it to the Spencer Research Library. For more, click here.

The Egyptian crocodile god, usually referred to as Sobek, is enthroned on a pedestal. In the Amduat, Sobek is associated with Re, a still greater God. Sobek is Re's malicious side.

(Department of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas)