Search Results: Texts

The Coffin Texts (c. 2134-2040 BCE) are 1,185 spells, incantations, and other forms of religious writing inscribed on coffins to help the deceased navigate the afterlife. They include the text known as the Book of Two Ways which is the first...

The Pyramid Texts are the oldest religious writings in the world and make up the principal funerary literature of ancient Egypt. They comprise the texts which were inscribed on the sarcophogi and walls of the pyramids at Saqqara in the 5th...

Medicine in ancient Egypt was understood as a combination of practical technique and magical incantation and ritual. Although physical injury was usually addressed pragmatically through bandages, splints, and salves, even the broken bones...

The rarity of the appearance of Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms in ancient literature is one of the reasons why those states are so little-known today. Indo-Greek literature did exist, but none has been found that speaks about the...

This manuscript book contains the translated works of Hippocrates and Galen, and it is entitled "Passage of Works by Hippocrates and Galen." It was compiled by Amirdovlat Amasiatsi or "Amirdovlat of Amasia" (c. 1420-1496 CE) who wrote in...

Rectangular wooden inner coffin of Sen from Deir el-Bersha, Middle Kingdom of Egypt, 12th Dynasty, c. 1850 BCE. The British Museum, London.

This fragment of limestone contains text in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics that was found in the pyramid of Pharaoh Pepi I Meryre (r. c. 2335–2285 BCE). (Pushkin Museum, Moscow)

The Vedas are religious texts from Ancient India that inform the religion of Hinduism. The religion of Hinduism is known by adherents as Sanatan Dharma which means “eternal order” and the Vedas are thought to be the literal words of God which...

Is it possible to have a heart that is lighter than a feather? To the ancient Egyptians it was not only possible but highly desirable. The after-life of the ancient Egyptians was known as the Field of Reeds, a land just like what one knew...

The Library of Ashurbanipal (7th century BCE) is the oldest known systematically organized library in the world, established in Nineveh by the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (r. 668-627 BCE) to preserve the history and culture of Mesopotamia...