THE PAPYRUS OF ANI.

General Description
The papyrus of Ani, was found at Thebes, and was purchased by the
Trustees of the British Museum in
1888. It measures 78 feet by 1 foot 3 inches, and is the longest known
papyrus of the Theban period.[1] It
is made up of six distinct lengths of papyrus, which vary in length from 26
feet 9 inches to 5 feet 7
inches. The material is composed of three layers of papyrus supplied by
plants which measured in the
stalks about 41 inches in diameter. The several lengths have been joined
together with great neatness, and
the repairs and insertion of new pieces (see plates 25, 26) have been
dexterously made. When first found,
the papyrus was of a light colour, similar to that of the papyrus of Hunefer
(B. M. No. 9901), but it
became darker after it had been unrolled, and certain sections of it have
shrunk somewhat.
It contains a number of chapters of the Book of the Dead, nearly all of
which are accompanied by
vignettes; and at top and bottom is a border of two colours-red and yellow.
[2] At the beginning and end
of the papyrus spaces of six and eleven inches respectively have been left
blank. The inscribed portion is
complete, and the loss of the few characters which were damaged in
unrolling[3] does not interrupt the
text. It was written by three or more scribes; but the uniformity of the
execution of the vignettes suggests
that fewer artists were employed on the illustrations. The titles of the
chapters, rubrics, catchwords, etc.,
are in red. In some instances the artist has occupied so much space that the
[1 The papyrus of Nebseni, of the XVIIIth dynasty (B.M., No. 9900), measures 76 feet
81 inches by 13 inches; and the
papyrus of Hunefer, of the XIXth dynasty (B.M., No. 9601), 18 feet 10 inches by 1 foot
3 5/8 inches; the Leyden papyrus
of Qenna, of the XVIIIth dynasty, measures about 50 feet; and the Dublin papyrus (Da
of M. Naville's edition), XVIIIth
dynasty, 24 feet 9 inches.
2 In some sections the border is painted yellow and orange.
3 See plates 1, 15, 24.]