Anastasi archive: A collection of documents from a temple archive containing material in hieratic, demotic, Old Coptic (a form of Egyptian written in Greek characters), and Greek. Using paleography, the archive has been dated to the second through fourth centuries A.D. The archive contains material on alchemy and literature, but most of the manuscripts are manuals that describe Egyptian rituals. Abraham is mentioned in a number of places in the archive in the context of lion couches, hypocephali, and astronomy. The collection takes its name from Giovanni d’Anastasi, an Egyptian antiquities collector of the early nineteenth century (see p. 16).

Book of Breathings: A large number of documents are classified under this heading. The modern title derives from the Egyptian title which, because of multiple meanings, can be literally translated as either “Book of Breathings” or “Letter of Fellowship.” Books of Breathings have been classified in many ways in the past, but the current classification, based on ancient titles, is as follows: Book of Breathings Made by Isis (formerly called the First Book of Breathings), First Book of Breathings (formerly called the Second Book of Breathings type II, a and b), and Second Book of Breathings (formerly called the Second Book of Breathings type IV). Other Books of Breathings are known and vary in content (see pp. 10, 28, 29).

Book of the Dead: A collection of ancient Egyptian religious texts called (in Egyptian) The Book of Going Forth by Day. It has its modern designation because copies are typically found buried with dead individuals. Although some of the chapters have a specific funerary function, other chapters were used for religious purposes while the individual was still alive. The contents of the chapters are often incomprehensible to modern readers, even Egyptologists. Until Saite times (after about 672 B.C.), the contents of the Book of the Dead were neither standardized in the selection of chapters nor in their ordering (see pp. 10, 26, 29, 40, 64).

canopic jars: Stone or ceramic jars originally designed to contain the internal organs of mummies. Originally the jars had plain stoppers (lids). Later, during the First Intermediate Period (2200–2040 B.C.), the stoppers were shaped as human heads. Eventually, by the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (about 1300 B.C.), the jars’ lids resembled animal heads. Ultimately (about 500 B.C.), the jars merely functioned as decoration and even ceased to be hollowed out. Figures 5–8 of Facsimile 1 of the Book of Abraham are canopic jars, though they are shaped like those that were not hollowed out (see p. 29).

demotic: An Egyptian script that developed out of hieratic (see hieratic below) that was used for business documents in the Nile Delta region. The earliest dated example comes from 657 B.C. and the latest comes from A.D. 457, over a century after Christianity became the official religion of Egypt (see pp. 26, 61).

facsimile: A reproduction or copy of a manuscript. The Book of Abraham included three facsimiles of the vignettes (see vignette below) from Egyptian manuscripts.

hieratic: Originally a cursive form of hieroglyphs, this Egyptian script was first attested at the beginning of the early dynastic period (about 3100 B.C.). It continued to be used until the third century A.D. While hieroglyphs were most often used for carving, hieratic was used mainly for brush and ink on papyrus, although it appears on other surfaces as well. Most of the Joseph Smith Papyri were written in hieratic (see pp. 25, 27, 61).

hypocephalus: Derived from Greek terms meaning “under the head,” the term hypocephalus (plural, hypocephali) is used for illustrated circular devices placed under the back of the head or atop the crown of mummies. The earliest known examples date to Saite times (672–525 B.C.) while the latest examples date to the Ptolemaic period (332–30 B.C.). Hypocephali were supposed to be made of gold, but most only imitate gold. Although normally associated with Book of the Dead chapter 162, a variety of texts and scenes can appear on hypocephali (see pp. 7, 10, 12, 39, 49, 57, 61).

paleography: The art of dating manuscripts according to handwriting style (see p. 61).

Septuagint (LXX): A translation of the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) made into Greek in Egypt, supposedly at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphos. Almost three hundred manuscripts of the Septuagint have been found at numerous places in Egypt, including Thebes, Oxyrhynchus, Memphis, and Elephantine, and subsequently published (see p. 16).

Soter find: A group of objects originally belonging to the family of Soter, who was archon of Thebes in A.D. 107. Because these objects were dug up by Antonio Lebolo, some people have thought they might be connected to the Joseph Smith Papyri (see pp. 25, 27).

Testament of Abraham: A noncanonical work that deals with Abraham’s visions of the cosmos and the purpose of life just before his death. It is generally thought to have been composed in Egypt in the first century A.D (see p. 16).

textual transmission: A term for how a manuscript is passed down or transmitted through time and space (see pp. 27–28).

vignette: A sketch or illustration located at the beginning or end of a section of text. Many such drawings accompany chapters of the Book of the Dead (pp. 10, 29, 30).