Papyrus Ryerson Inscribed with Book of the Dead Spells

The hieratic script was often used for administrative and literary purposes in Egypt, as well as for writing religious texts. Hieratic was a cursive script that could be written more quickly than hieroglyphs.

Hieroglyphs were generally used for ceremonial or religious materials. This "Book of the Dead" papyrus uses both scripts and is accompanied by illustrations. It is probable that three artisans worked on this papyrus: one did the drawings, one wrote the hieratic passages, and one wrote the hieroglyphs.