Editing Book of the Dead (section)

===Chronology===
* c. 3150 BC – First preserved hieroglyphs, on small labels in the tomb of a king buried (in tomb U-j) at [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]]
* c. 3000 BC – The beginning of the numbered dynasties of kings of ancient Egypt
* c. 2345 BC – First royal pyramid, of King Unas, to contain the ''Pyramid Texts'', carved precursors to the funerary literature from which the ''Book of the Dead'' ultimately developed
* c. 2100 BC – First ''Coffin Texts'', developed from the ''Pyramid Texts'' and for a time painted on the coffins of commoners. Many spells of the ''Book of the Dead'' are closely derived from them
* c. 1600 BC – Earliest spells of the ''Book of the Dead'', on the coffin of Queen [[Mentuhotep (queen)|Menthuhotep]], an ancestor of kings from the New Kingdom
* c. 1550 BC – From this time onward to the beginning of the New Kingdom, papyrus copies of the ''Book of the Dead'' are used instead of inscribing spells on the walls of the tombs
* c. 600 BC – Approximately when the order of the spells became standard
* 42–553 AD – Christianity spreads to Egypt, gradually replacing the native religion as successive emperors alternately tolerate or suppress them, culminating in the last temple at [[Philae]] (also site of the last known religious inscription in demotic, dating from 452) being closed by order of Emperor Justinian in 533
* 2nd century AD – Possibly the last copies of the ''Book of the Dead'' were produced, but it is a poorly documented era of history
* 1798 AD – Napoleon's invasion of Egypt encourages European interests in ancient Egypt; 1799, [[Vivant Denon]] was handed a copy of the ''Book of the Dead''
* 1805 AD – Jean-Marcel Cadet makes the first publication, on 18 plates, of a ''Book of the Dead'', ''Copie figurée d'un rouleau de papyrus trouvé à Thèbes, dans un tombeau des rois''<ref>{{cite book|first=Jean-Marcel |last=Cadet|display-authors=|title=Copie figurée d'un rouleau de papyrus trouvé à Thèbes, dans un tombeau des rois|location=Paris|publisher=Levrault, Schoell & Cie.|date=1805|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1520931k.image}}</ref>
* 1822 AD – [[Jean-François Champollion]] announces the key to the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, subsequently developed in his later publications, the most extensive after his death in 1832
* 1842 AD – Lepsius publishes the first major study of the ''Book of the Dead'', begins the numbering of the spells or chapters, and brings the name "Book of the Dead" into general circulation<ref>{{cite book |last=Kemp |first=Barry |title=How to Read the Egyptian Book of the Dead |year=2007 |publisher=Granta Publications |location=New York |pages=112–113}}</ref>