Papyrus of Ani: The Gates of the Duat

The papyrus fragment is organized into two horizontal registers. On the left, Ani and his wife are shown in profile, dressed in fine white linen, hands raised in gestures of worship. To the right of these figures are multiple rectangular shrines or portals, each containing a deity with an animal head—including representations of Horus, Anubis, and Thoth—or symbolic elements such as the Eye of Horus. The entire composition is densely packed with vertical columns of hieroglyphic text, characteristic of funerary spells intended to guide the soul through the underworld.

This artwork is a segment of the Papyrus of Ani, a prominent example of the Egyptian 'Book of the Dead' (or 'Spells of Coming Forth by Day'), a collection of mortuary texts designed to ensure the soul's successful navigation of the afterlife.