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Ancient Egypt: Obsessed with Life in Victoria, and the words for the afterlife

8 November 2026

Ancient Egypt: Obsessed with Life is at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, British Columbia, until 3 January 2027. Made by MuseumsPartner of Austria with the Moesgaard Museum in Denmark, it fills about 9,000 square feet with some 250 ancient objects. Entry comes with museum admission.

The show walks visitors through an Egyptian death, from the last breath through embalming and burial to the journey into the underworld, with light, sound and smells. Nearly every coffin, papyrus and jar in it is written on, and three words unlock most of what is written: Osiris, offering and coming forth by day.

Osiris is the name on every coffin

An Egyptian who died hoped to become an Osiris, like the god who was killed, put back together and made king of the dead. On coffins and papyri the dead person's name often comes straight after the god's, as "the Osiris" and then the name. The painted outer coffin of a man or woman called Takheru, from the Ptolemaic period, is among the coffins the organisers list.

The god's name, wsjr, is written with two signs and a third to show a god. The seat or throne () and the eye () spell it, and the seated god () after them says whose name it is. Find the throne and the eye side by side, and the dead person's name usually follows.

Seat Eye Seated god

Coming forth by day is the Book of the Dead

The illustrated papyri the organisers list, from the Third Intermediate and Ptolemaic periods, are copies of what we call the Book of the Dead. The Egyptians called it the book of prt m hrw, "coming forth by day": spells to get the dead past the gods and gates of the underworld and back out into daylight.

Read it sign by sign. The house () is pr, with the mouth () for r, the bread loaf () for t and the walking legs () to show movement: prt, "coming forth". The owl () is m, "by". The reed shelter (), mouth and quail chick () spell hrw, "day", with the sun () after it.

House Mouth Bread loaf Walking legs Owl Reed shelter Quail chick Sun

The offering sign feeds the dead

Coffins, stelae and statues ask for offerings with the words ḥtp-dj-nswt, "an offering which the king gives". Its key sign is a loaf of bread on a reed mat (), ḥtp, "offering" and also "peace". The prayer goes on to list bread, beer, oxen, birds, linen and everything good and pure for the dead person's spirit.

The New Kingdom statue of a man named Raia, also on the organisers' list, belongs to the same world. A statue gave the spirit a body to return to, and the name carved on it made sure the offerings reached the right person.

Bread on an offering mat

Read the offering formula phrase by phrase

Shabtis and canopic jars did the work

Shabti figures and their boxes stand in the burial section. These small mummy-shaped figures were made to do the dead person's share of farm work in the next world, and they carry a spell from the Book of the Dead telling them to answer "here I am" when called.

Canopic jars held the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines, each protected by one of the four sons of Horus. In 2023 scientists led by Barbara Huber analysed the embalming balm left in two jars of a noblewoman called Senetnay, wet nurse of the future Amenhotep II around 1450 BC. A perfumer rebuilt its smell, beeswax, plant oils and resins among them, and Moesgaard let visitors sniff it when the show opened there. The Victoria version also uses reconstructed ancient scents.

Sennedjem's tomb is rebuilt full size

The touring show includes a full-size copy of the burial chamber of Sennedjem, a craftsman who worked on the royal tombs and lived in the workmen's village of Deir el-Medina. His real tomb, found intact in 1886, has some of the brightest paintings in Egypt: Sennedjem and his wife Iyneferti farming in the fields of the afterlife, and the gods who guide them.

The walls are full of the same words, Osiris and the offering formula among them, so the replica is a good place to practise. The camera on this site reads signs from a photo, and the picture never leaves your phone.

Read the tomb of Sennedjem

Families get a ride through the underworld

The Royal BC Museum is at 675 Belleville Street in Victoria, and the show is on its second floor. Families can take a virtual 3D ride through the underworld, and hands-on stations show how a body was wrapped. The museum warns that the exhibition uses strong magnets that may interfere with medical devices.

Questions

How long is the Egypt exhibition at the Royal BC Museum?

It opened on 5 June 2026 and runs until 3 January 2027. It is included with museum admission and free for members.

Are there real mummies in Ancient Egypt: Obsessed with Life?

The show includes animal mummies, falcons and hawks from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, as well as coffins, a gilded mummy mask and canopic jars.

What is the Book of the Dead?

A collection of spells written on papyrus or coffins to help the dead through the underworld. The Egyptians called it the book of coming forth by day.

Glossary

afterlife: The life Egyptians expected after death. It needed a preserved body, a tomb, offerings and the right spells.
Book of the Dead: A collection of spells written on papyrus and placed in burials from the New Kingdom on, to guide the dead through the afterlife. Egyptians called it the Spells for Coming Forth by Day.
canopic jar: One of four jars that held the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines taken out of a body during mummification.
coffin: A box for the body, of wood or stone, often shaped like a person and painted with spells, names and gods. Rich burials nested several coffins inside a sarcophagus.
mummification: Preserving a body for the afterlife. Embalmers took out the organs, dried the body in natron salt for about 40 days and wrapped it in linen.
mummy: A body dried and wrapped in linen so that it would last. Egyptians believed the spirit needed it in the afterlife.
New Kingdom: Egypt's age of empire, about 1550 to 1069 BC, the time of Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II.
offering formula: The prayer ḥtp-dj-nswt, "an offering that the king gives", asking for bread, beer and other good things for the dead. It is written on tombs, stelae and coffins.
papyrus: A writing sheet made from strips of the papyrus reed laid in two crossing layers and pressed. Sheets were glued into long rolls.
shabti: A small figure placed in a tomb to do farm work in the afterlife for the person buried there.
stela: An upright stone slab carved with words and pictures, set up in tombs and temples or to mark a border.
tomb: A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.

Where to see it

Tomb of Sennedjem (TT1) monument
Deir el-Medina site