COFFIN TEXTS

collection of ancient Egyptian funerary texts consisting of spells or magic formulas, painted on the burial coffins of the First Intermediate period (c. 21301939 BC) and the Middle Kingdom (1938c. 1600? BC). The Coffin Texts, combined with the Pyramid Texts from which they were derived, were the primary sources of the Book of the Dead, which was in prominent use during the New Kingdom and Late period. These three collections represent the most extensive body of Egyptian religious literature available to modern scholars.