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| Synopsis: What motivated ancient
Egyptians to spend up to a year's salary on a book that would rest with
them through eternity? And what caused a determined Egyptologist to risk
his freedom and reputation to acquire such a book for the British Museum
over three thousand years later? "The Egyptian Book Of The Dead", premieres
on Tuesday, August 22nd, at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The History Channel.
"The Egyptian Book Of The Dead" weaves together two stories through recreations, expert interviews and computer-generated graphics - that of a temple scribe in ancient Egypt, named Ani, who saves for months to buy his Book of the Dead, and that of a roguish 19th Century museum curator named Earnest Wallis Budge, who discovers the same book and purchases it for the British Museum in London. It is around 1250 B.C.E. The ancient Egyptians believe in a vast and intricate life after death. While the pharaohs build lavish pyramids to entomb their mummified remains, less prosperous Egyptians, and even the poor are also concerned with how they will spend eternity. Many of them invest half a year's salary or more to purchase a Book of the Dead, a scroll which will accompany them and be their guide to the afterlife. One such Egyptian, Ani, is a temple scribe, what might be considered a modern-day accountant, whose job it is to tally all the offerings made to the gods. As part of an educated group within the Egyptian elite, Ani, has both the intellect and the time to ponder his place in the afterlife. But, Ani and his wife, Tutu, must make a difficult decision - provide for the present or for eternity. Once the decision is made, the effort and time that goes into crafting Ani's Book of the Dead, from treating stalks of papyrus to constructing a scroll that will last for thousands of years without deterioration, is a long, costly process. Ani's quest, and that of many other ancient Egyptians is nothing short of immortality. They hoped for an everlasting afterlife in a place called the 'Field of Reeds.' Many scholars believe that this was the first time mankind conceived of a place after death that today we might call 'heaven'. The ancient Egyptians also believed that you could only get into this place if you had lived a good life and had observed the rules of the Book of the Dead - rules such as never killing another person, or stealing, or lying. "The Egyptian Book Of The Dead" intertwines Ani's story with that of the British Museum curator, Ernest Wallis Budge, who, in 1887, risks arrest, prison or worse in a quest to bring what is now called the Scroll of Ani to London. Budge collected thousands of Egyptian artifacts, but his methods, recreated for the program, bring mixed opinions from the experts. Some experts believe that black market artifacts pose a problem of authenticity in the items. Counters James Wasserman, Producer of "The Egyptian Book Of The Dead," "People apply cultural judgments. The fact that he took materials out of ancient cultures for its day was quite normal. When one considers the number of antiquities that were lost, destroyed, stolen. One can only thank somebody. like Budge. because he preserved these things." Whatever point of view one holds about Budge, his actions simultaneously
provided the British Museum with an extraordinary collection and destroyed
some of Egypt's great archeological treasures. Ultimately, Budge also
ensured for Ani what he desired most, but in a way that he could never
have imagined: immortality, in the form of his scroll, preserved and
still on display in the British Museum. (Courtesy of The History Channel,
2006)
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