Ghosts in Ancient Egypt

The beliefs in ghosts and spirits of the dead are widespread in world religions. In ancient Egypt, however, there is a certain inconsistency when mentioning the manifestations of the restless dead in magical texts. This paper will present and discuss a number of textual and iconographical sources that point out to the beliefs in ghosts, revenants and evil dead in the spells and objects used in everyday magic as well as in mortuary compositions such as the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.