Conception of death in the inscription on the stela of Taimhotep

The paper aims to reveal the implication of the word «death» in the latest version of the ancient Egyptian «appeal to the living». The investigation is based on the text inscribed on the stela of Taimhotep, a wife of Psherenptah III, High Priest of Memphis (British Museum EA 147, lines 15–21, BC 42). The originality of the record, presented in a new translation, consists in the development of the earlier traditional concepts by its creator, who styled the text as a message from the deceased to the living. The letter conveys the belief in the inevitability of death and uncertainty about the time of its summons. Addressing to her spouse, the deceased woman describes the «gloomy darkness» around her and advices to enjoy the life of the present every day that after a thousand-year interval echoes the mood and tenor of the harpers’ songs from the New Kingdom tombs. The study discusses the reading of the word «death» and the author states an occurrence of a new word. The name of the death expressed by imperative of the verb «come» is derived from the description of the day when a man is called to enter the netherworld.