The Mummy 1932 "Scroll of Thoth"

[mathew]

The text next to the mummies face seems to be an actual semi-readable title string. It reads:
<sA knna> Hw.t Hm-nTr tpy Ii-m-Htp.

According to the glyphs it should be read right to left. However, the propmakers reversed the word order so that it reads from left to right. Retrograde writing does exist, but this is just wrong. In Egyptian the name would customarily come at the end of a title string.

Taking that into account it would actually say: " Imhotep, high priest of the temple of the son of Kenna. Written correctly: Hm-nTr tpy Hw.t sA knna Ii-m-Htp

The second and third photo show the name of Imhotep (in a different spelling from the first photo).

The scroll-box shows some upside down signs and non-existing signs. It is likely nonsense, but I can have a look later if you want.

 

[RobertMuldoon]

Very nice! I think you're spot on in your transliteration. I do have to disagree with your translation though (after all I need to get my money's worth out of my degree )
If you want to make sense of it, it would be more akin to:
(Iw) Sfy.t ra anx=sn di=k s.t kA ib sA pr
"The majesty of Ra is their life, while you give a place, a ka, a heart, a son and a house"

Yet, like you I highly doubt that they tried to make a coherent sentence XD

The book is very nice, I wss able to get a hardcover a few years back. My glyphs still suck though.

I'm the first to admit my translation skills are still a bit shaky, glad you agree with the transliteration though and thanks for the correction!

It's a weird sentence, not sure why they didn't just copy something off a real coffin....

 

[mathew]

I'm the first to admit my translation skills are still a bit shaky, glad you agree with the transliteration though and thanks for the correction!

It's a weird sentence, not sure why they didn't just copy something off a real coffin....

We all started there

Prop masters make weird choices. Clearly they checked real hieroglyphs, why not follow through?

 

[RobertMuldoon]

In Egyptian the name would customarily come at the end of a title string.

I would also expect some kind of determinative after the name, to indicate it was a name.

Something like this for either Imhotep as a person or as a mummy...

 

[Solinus]

The text next to the mummies face seems to be an actual semi-readable title string. It reads:
<sA knna> Hw.t Hm-nTr tpy Ii-m-Htp.

According to the glyphs it should be read right to left. However, the propmakers reversed the word order so that it reads from left to right. Retrograde writing does exist, but this is just wrong. In Egyptian the name would customarily come at the end of a title string.

Taking that into account it would actually say: " Imhotep, high priest of the temple of the son of Kenna. Written correctly: Hm-nTr tpy Hw.t sA knna Ii-m-Htp

The second and third photo show the name of Imhotep (in a different spelling from the first photo).

The scroll-box shows some upside down signs and non-existing signs. It is likely nonsense, but I can have a look later if you want.

Coming to this late so hopefully the OP is still interested. I have done a bit of research and I find that most people recognize this as a scene from the book of the Dead, however, everyone quotes the wrong book. The links I have seen in this post are all pointing to the Book of the Dead of Ani. There is a large section of text in the movie on the left and that is missing in Ani's scroll.
The answer?
The Book of the Dead of Hunefer

Plate 3 is what is seen most in the movie

papyrus | British Museum

Book of the Dead of Hunefer (Hw-nfr) frame 3; fully coloured vignettes; coloured border. The scene (vignettes) shows episodes in Hunefer's judgement.

www.britishmuseum.org

Plate 2 is the text that comes before it on the left

papyrus | British Museum

Book of the Dead of Hunefer (Hw-nfr) frame 2; fully coloured vignettes; coloured border. Spell 183.

www.britishmuseum.org

two screenshots, the two plates connected and then my display and the copy I am in the process of making.

 

[mathew]

Coming to this late so hopefully the OP is still interested. I have done a bit of research and I find that most people recognize this as a scene from the book of the Dead, however, everyone quotes the wrong book. The links I have seen in this post are all pointing to the Book of the Dead of Ani. There is a large section of text in the movie on the left and that is missing in Ani's scroll.
The answer?
The Book of the Dead of Hunefer

Plate 3 is what is seen most in the movie

papyrus | British Museum

Book of the Dead of Hunefer (Hw-nfr) frame 3; fully coloured vignettes; coloured border. The scene (vignettes) shows episodes in Hunefer's judgement.

www.britishmuseum.org

Plate 2 is the text that comes before it on the left

papyrus | British Museum

Book of the Dead of Hunefer (Hw-nfr) frame 2; fully coloured vignettes; coloured border. Spell 183.

www.britishmuseum.org

two screenshots, the two plates connected and then my display and the copy I am in the process of making.

I was talking about the sarcophagus, but you seem spot on with the book of Hunefer. The glyphs match. It would fit in with other propmakers just picking a real objects in the BM.

Love the vignette and the fact that you're hand drawing the scroll btw

 

[Solinus]

I actually thought I was responding to the main topic ha-ha, but I am glad for the info on the sarcophagus I want to build one.

Here is an updated image after completing more of the work. Also, one in b&w to see how the atmosphere is. I do not think I mentioned the size. Not as large as the original in the movie. This is handmade papyrus from Egypt. I connected two 8x12 pieces so total size is 8x24 inches. I have also sanded lightly some of the completed writing to make it look a little faded.

 

[Odin82]

[Duplicate post]

 

[Odin82]

The links I have seen in this post are all pointing to the Book of the Dead of Ani. There is a large section of text in the movie on the left and that is missing in Ani's scroll.
The answer?
The Book of the Dead of Hunefer

I thought in the opening post, I mentioned it was the Book of Hunefer and not the Ani one.

Yup

It seems the original 1932 Scroll was "The Papyus of Hunefer".

For a moment I was like this is some Twilight Zone stuff.

Even other users linked to the British Museum of the Hunefer scans etc, which another user stitched together. Thought I was going crazy for a moment. Even have the full Hunefer scan from the British Museum but it's like 500mbs or something.

 

[Solinus]

You are right. I must have really been in the TZ. I could have sworn I was responding to a post where the OP was asking what the scroll had been based on. I must have been having a real senior moment. Sorry for the confusion.
In any case, I have completed my scroll.

 

[JamesM242]

Looking good! And I dig your desk!

 

[MAKE BELIEVE]

Great job on the scroll

 

[Odin82]

The scroll looks fantastic! Love the Mummy ring and hand making a guest appearance in one of the photos!

And as James said, that's a nice looking writing desk!

A lot of us here love the old Universal stuff, and sometimes it feels like it gets forgotten about. It's great to see others keeping the torch lit for some of the older paper props. I've a list of things I'd love to see be replicated, and most of them I'm hoping Propstohistory will accidentally stumble across the original run of them.

 

[RobertMuldoon]

The scroll looks fantastic! Love the Mummy ring and hand making a guest appearance in one of the photos!

And as James said, that's a nice looking writing desk!

A lot of us here love the old Universal stuff, and sometimes it feels like it gets forgotten about. It's great to see others keeping the torch lit for some of the older paper props. I've a list of things I'd love to see be replicated, and most of them I'm hoping Propstohistory will accidentally stumble across the original run of them.

I like all of the different 'The Mummy' films, well maybe not the 2017 one but it did have some cool props from the Egyptian scenes.

I've been working with a couple of institutions on Egyptian representation in pop culture, and will definitely be including the 1932 Universal Mummy. More on that in a different thread when I can reveal more, but I will see if a loan of the the Hunefer papyrus is possible...

 

[Odin82]

the 2017 one but it did have some cool props from the Egyptian scenes.

The props and sets on the 2017 one was great. One of the recent propstore auctions had a couple of pieces, but they were of the large type of props. Would have loved to have snatched them. The 2017 wasn't too bad, but it was just always going to be a Ethan Hunt type of adventure.

If you haven't already, should check out a youtube channel called Ancient Architects. Really interesting stuff there and hugely informative. Majority of the content is the history of Egypt, and not of the aliens built it narrative, but just research driven videos.

https://www.youtube.com/@AncientArchitects/videos