The ancient Egyptians loved to parody their own lives… The Turin Erotic Papyrus Vignettesīack to the Turin Papyrus – this is where it gets a little more controversial.įirst of all, the ancient Egyptians were not shy by any standards to talk about sex and sexuality. Other scenes on this papyrus include such preposterous things as a mouse being pampered by cats.

A cat holding a crook and flail like a kingĬheck out the lion’s barely concealed glee as he’s about to make a move… talk about a terrible poker face!.This is the first third of the papyrus and contains vignettes of animals doing impossible things. So, let’s take a look at each part of the Turin Erotic Papyrus and see for ourselves which we agree with more… get ready for some giggles 🙂 Animals Behaving Like Humans Is it purely satirical as the animal part suggests, or could the erotic part have been some form of fertility rites or religious sexuality? So far, the consensus is on the former. So much so that it was not revealed to the general public until the 1970’s even though it was discovered in the 1820’s. This sole piece of ancient Egyptian erotica has shocked and confused Egyptologists for years. Although the content is quite different from the usually grand and somewhat distant style of ancient Egyptian art – its quality points to the idea that it was enjoyed by ancient Egyptian elite and was not just some raunchy one-off. It was discovered in Deir El Medina and was painted during the Ramesside period of the New Kingdom. It is read from right to left and is composed in the above scenes in the form of vignettes with some commentary and dialogue. Scenes of love-making between a man and a woman.Animals doing human tasks (which does not have erotic content except for one scene).This website provides vivid narratives targeted at the non-specialist, focusing on the history and content of the Turin papyri, the ongoing papyrus projects and their workflow, and the application of innovative technology to investigate ancient manuscripts.The Turin Erotic Papyrus is over two and a half meters long and is made up of two parts: However, we are currently working on translations of the texts written on the papyri in several languages. Therefore, the language of the database is English. We are collaborating with an international academic community of scholars who are engaged in research on our papyri. The number of accessible papyri will be constantly expanded over the coming years. Registered users, on the other hand, have access to the whole collection of Ramesside hieratic papyri, except for the smaller fragments. Currently, only a selection of the collection is visible on the website. Work on the online platform is in progress. The website allows the academic community and general public alike to search, browse and collect information about the papyri. The final aim is to provide public access to all of the museum’s papyri in the long run. The purpose of the website is to put the papyrus collection in the Museo Egizio online via the Turin Papyrus Online Platform.

The Turin Papyrus Online Platform moves away from closed archives towards open data, which is a major step forward in the domain of historical archiving and digital humanities.

Turin papyrus