Graphic register of the Duat? Monumentality and cursivity in the burial furniture of the Third Intermediate Period

The beginning of the Third Intermediate Period (1069–887 BCE) marked a significant transformation in Egyptian funerary practices. Burial assemblages became minimalistic. Text and images concentrated on coffins and papyri surrounding the mummy. These objects featured an iconotextual program that mapped the cosmos, with the Duat—the Otherworld—encasing the deceased. The visual and textual compositions on these materials, varying in visibility during rituals, incorporated multiple graphic registers: over time, depictions of the afterlife inside the coffins transitioned from cursive hieroglyphs to polychrome monumental inscriptions. On the contrary, the graphic register of the papyri became more cursive. Contrasting with cursive hieroglyphs of the Amduat, Books of the Dead of the 22nd Dynasty adopt hieratic. At the 22nd Dynasty, the Duat is thus associated with (more) monumental graphic registers. This period also witnessed an intentional oscillation between cursivity and monumentality in iconographic treatment. The blending of textual and pictorial elements created synergistic interactions that accentuated the dissolution of the boundaries between script and image. Specific graphic registers became linked to spatial zones within burial contexts, evoking distinct sections of the funerary ensemble. Consequently, these registers formed a semantic system that interconnected grammatical, symbolic, and spatial features of burial objects with stages of the deceased’s regeneration.