"Pyramid Texts" have no illustrations, but a few of the texts on the
coffins of the XIth and XIIth dynasties have coloured vignettes, e.g.,
those which refer to the region to be traversed by the deceased on his
way to the Other World, and the Islands of the Blessed or the Elysian
Fields. On the upper margins of the insides of such coffins there
are frequently given two or more rows of coloured drawings of the
offerings which under the Vth dynasty were presented to the deceased
or his statue during the celebration of the service of "Opening
the Mouth" and the performance of the ceremonies of "The Liturgy
of Funerary Offerings." Under the XVIIIth dynasty, when the use of
large rectangular coffins and sarcophagi fell somewhat into disuse,
the scribes began to write collections of Chapters from the PER-T EM
HRU on rolls of papyri instead of on coffins. At first the texts were
written in hieroglyphs, the greater number of them being in black ink,
and an attempt was made to illustrate each text by a vignette drawn
in black outline. The finest known example of such a codex is the
Papyrus of Nebseni (Brit. Mus. No. 9900), which is 77 feet 7 1/2
inches in length and I foot I1/2 inches in breadth. Early in the
XVIIIth dynasty scribes began to write the titles of the Chapters,
the rubrics, and the catchwords in red ink and the text in black,
and it became customary to decorate the vignettes with colours, and to
increase their size and number. The oldest codex of this class is the
Papyrus of Nu (Brit. Mus. No. 10477) which is 65 feet 3 1/2 inches in
length, and 1 foot 1 1/2 inches in breadth. This and many other rolls
were written by their owners for their own tombs, and in each roll both
text and vignettes were usually, the work of the same hand. Later,
however, the scribe wrote the text only, and a skilled artist was
employed to add the coloured vignettes, for which spaces were marked
out and left blank by the scribe. The finest example of this class of
roll is the Papyrus of Ani (Brit. Mus., No. 10470). which is 78 feet