Page "Book of the Dead" Paragraph 34

A Book of the Dead papyrus was produced to order by scribes.

They were commissioned by people in preparation for their own funeral, or by the relatives of someone recently deceased.

They were expensive items ; one source gives the price of a Book of the Dead scroll as one deben of silver, perhaps half the annual pay of a labourer.

Papyrus itself was evidently costly, as there are many instances of its re-use in everyday documents, creating palimpsests.

In one case, a Book of the Dead was written on second-hand papyrus.