Les manuscrits comme trousseau funéraire : pour une reconsidération des manuscrits découverts à l’intérieur de tombes égypto-chrétiennes

The use of depositing funerary texts along with the body of the deceased is well known in Pharaonic Egypt. It served the purpose of accompanying and facilitating the passage in the afterlife of the dead, who had to undergo many dangers and proofs that even the ultra-mundane world foresaw. Conversely, the analogous practice in Late Antique and Medieval Egypt still requires research to large extent. Based on state-of-the-art research and currently available data from human burials with a “Christian Book of the Dead”, the practice of bringing with oneself books for the journey into the afterlife, although documented by few ascertained cases, appears to be a socio-cultural phenomenon of the greatest interest.