Egyptian funerary religion
Djed Pillar
Tirard records an older explanation of the Tat as four pillars and an emblem of stability. She then presents Naville’s identification of it with a human backbone and Osiris. The quoted formula offers a golden Tat to the god whose heart is motionless. The symbol’s function is tied to restoring and supporting the dead god, not merely decorating his image.
Also known as Tat
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalTirard records an older explanation of the Tat as four pillars and an emblem of stability. She then presents Naville’s identification of it with a human backbone and Osiris.
Further detail
TraditionalThe quoted formula offers a golden Tat to the god whose heart is motionless. The symbol’s function is tied to restoring and supporting the dead god, not merely decorating his image.
Context & interpretation
Tirard’s 1910 account interprets selected funerary texts and rituals through the scholarship of her period. Local cults and surviving manuscripts vary; her comparisons and proposed origins are not a modern Egyptological consensus.
Original passages
Source 1
The Book of the Dead
pillars, and was supposed to be an emblem of stability. Naville, however, has identified it as a human backbone, and as a symbol ofOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Egyptian funerary religion; active reader leaf 91
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0039-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0039-E001-P0091
- Original scan leaf
- 101
- Recorded leaf number
- 91
- Current Reader position
- 84
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
- Location review
- Original scan location confirmed against the reviewed Reader mapping; the earlier recorded number is retained above.
Source 2
The Book of the Dead
the tat Amulet. Tat : " Here is thy backbone, O god, whose heart is motionless ; here is thy spine, O god, whoseOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Egyptian funerary religion; active reader leaf 91
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0039-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0039-E001-P0091
- Original scan leaf
- 101
- Recorded leaf number
- 91
- Current Reader position
- 84
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
- Location review
- Original scan location confirmed against the reviewed Reader mapping; the earlier recorded number is retained above.