Amherst Papyrus - Historical Importance

Historical Importance

The Amherst-Leopold Papyrus is of great importance in helping understand the culture of Ancient Egypt "and give us more detail than we could ever have recovered from purely archeological evidence.” The document shows us the prevalence of tomb-robbing in Ancient Egypt and the rewards it offered, and demonstrates why people would perform the difficult and dangerous act of robbing a tomb. The punishments given for the crime itself also can be seen to be important, the harshness of impalement shows that tomb-robbing was taken very seriously. This suggests that the authorities either wanted to prevent future robberies by giving such harsh punishments and deter future tomb-robbers (even though it had not deterred those in the past), or it might show the importance of death and the afterlife in Ancient Egypt. The acts in robbing tombs, such as taking away funerary gifts and destroying coffins or even the bodies of the deceased, was thought to endanger their passage into the afterlife, and could be the reason for using such a violent and painful punishment. What we do know for sure is that this source is an interesting view into Egyptian culture and administration, giving us an idea of what life and the practices of Ancient Egyptians were like.