Innovation No. 66 of 77 in the book
The Illustrated Manual
The Book of the Dead as the first step-by-step visual guidebook
- When
- c. 1550 BCE
- Dynasty
- 18th Dynasty
- Era
- New Kingdom
The Book of the Dead, taking shape around 1550 BCE, is the world’s first illustrated how-to guide — a step-by-step manual, with pictures, for navigating the afterlife.
Each spell was paired with a painted illustration showing exactly what to do or say — text and diagram side by side, so the reader could follow along.
That format — instructions plus a matching picture — is the ancestor of every manual, guidebook and flat-pack assembly sheet since.
The illustrated instruction manual was first published on the Nile.
The format has a traceable lineage over two thousand years: Pyramid Texts carved in royal stone tombs around 2400 BCE, then Coffin Texts painted on wooden coffins around 2000 BCE, then, by the New Kingdom, the same instructions combined onto portable illustrated papyrus. Complete scrolls such as the Papyrus of Ani, around 1250 BCE, are the earliest known integration of text and diagram into a reference manual you could carry.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was each scroll made to order?
Usually not. Workshops produced templates in advance, with the standard instructions already written out and gaps left in the text for a clerk to ink in the buyer's name at the point of sale.
What makes the illustrations more than decoration?
They are matched to the instruction beside them, showing what to do or say at that step. Text paired with an explanatory picture is the structure of every manual and assembly sheet since.