Inventory number

Drawing description

The manuscript’s visual representation describes the Sun-god Re's nocturnal journey through the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Hours of the night. The treatise's visual model does not resemble the prototype established that decorates the 18th Dynasty royal burial chambers in the Valley of the Kings. The scribe arranges the scenes without following the treatise’s standard protocol and presents the episodes according to his discretion. Therefore, several deities are missing from these scenes (deities 701-703, 707-709, 712-717 in the Tenth Hour, deities 775, 778, 780, 783-784, 790-797 in the Eleventh Hour and deities 827-833, 842-845, 869-892 and 897 in the Twelfth Hour). The treatise's structure consists of two horizontal registers presenting Re, in his nocturnal shape as a ram-headed deity, travelling on the solar boat through the last three netherworld regions. From the manuscript’s left-hand side, the top register presents five deities with the wAs sceptre: two are anthropomorphic, one lion-headed, one serpent-headed and one crocodile-headed. They represent the goddess Sekhmet's unpredictable nature (both destructive and healing). These deities can also be in charge of stripping the corpses and tearing the bandages off of Re’s enemies. In this particular case, reconstructing this episode's meaning is quite challenging, mostly because of the scribes' inability to distinguish between the iconography of more than one episode (The Mighty and The Punishment, both from the Tenth Hour). Following the first scene, we encounter three rowers of the solar barque and five goddesses with fire-spitting snakes on their shoulders. These goddesses punish Re’s nemesis Apophis and brighten the Netherworld’s darkness. Finally there are eight worshipers characterised by the typical adoration gesture with raised hands, praising the Great God. From the manuscript’s left-hand side, the bottom register presents four deities towing the solar barque and carrying the serpent Mehen over their shoulders. An anonymous goddess and two deities bearing Neith’s forms accompany the Sun-god’s path through his journey. The following scene contains a predominantly apotropaic characteristic, presenting three deities with the wAs sceptre, as in the top register’s first scene. The first deity posses the x.t sign (the determinative for the word “fire”) as his head, the second is a serpent-headed deity, and the third is anthropomorphic. This register’s last two scenes gather two crucial elements: a vessel transporting the serpent anx-tA (The living one of the earth), the bA of Osiris, and his corpse, sSm-iwf (Image of the flesh) which is restricted into the boundaries of the Netherworld. The scribe states the end of the Sun-god’s journey through the Netherworld between the two registers on the manuscript's right-hand side. A beetle, that is Re’s renewed form, exits the Netherworld travelling through the air-god Shu's outstretched arms to be reborn as the sun disk at dawn.