Page 34 - اثار مصر الفرعونية2

were probably composed by the priests of the Heliopolitan sun
cult, but may had a predynastic origin. No single pyramid
contains the whole collection of spells and there was no standard
edition. One of the texts in Unas's pyramid (utterances 273-4) is
referred to as the cannibal hymn', which describes 'swallowing
the spirits of the gods'. It is suggested that this may be a remnant
of an extinct funerary practice such as human sacrifice, though
there is no evidence for this in Old Kingdom Egypt.

Pyramid Texts have been found in five kings pyramids of
Dynasties V to VI (Unas, Teti, Pepy I, Merenre and Pepy II) and
in the Dynasty VIII pyramid of king Ibi, as well as a few queen's
pyramids. Maspero collected more than 4000 lines of text from
the pyramids he investigated the inscriptions are thought to be
the earliest corpus of religious expression from anywhere in the
world and were the forerunner to later coffin texts and the texts
commonly called the 'Book of the Dead' (which include much of
the content of the Pyramid Texts) in later royal tombs.

Unas's sarcophagus of greywacke was sunk into the floor on
the western side of the burial chamber, with his canopic chest at
its foot. Only a few mummified fragments of bone were found
remaining from the burial (now in Cairo Museum), but it is not
clear whether they belonged to Unas.

The mortuary temple on the eastern side of Unas's pyramid
is now largely destroyed but followed the plan of his predecessor

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