A group of over a thousand spells, selections from which were inscribed in cursive on the insides of the wooden coffins during the Middle Kingdom, particularly the 11th and 12 Dynasties (2055-1795 BCE). Many of the Coffin Texts were derived from the Pyramid Texts, spells carved on the internal walls of Old Kingdom pyramids.

During the Old Kingdom, the afterlife had been the prerogative of the king, who in death was identified with Wesir (Osiris) and transformed into a god. With the collapse of the Old Kingdom came greater self-reliance and a process sometimes called “democratization of the afterlife. This meant that everyone could have access to the afterlife without being associated with the royal cult directly.

The Coffin Texts were intended to provide a guarantee of survival in the afterworld, and some of them are the ancestors of spells found in the New Kingdom Book of the Dead. Some of their titles are ‘Not to rot and not to do work in the kingdom of the dead,’ and ‘Spell for not dying a second death,’ which was designed to prevent the deceased from being judged unfit to enter the kingdom of Wesir and thus condemned to oblivion.

Both the Pyramid and the Coffin Texts present more than one version of the destination of the deceased. They might travel the sky with Re the sun-god, or might pass down into the underworld ruled by Wesir. This latter view increased during the Middle Kingdom.