The first identification of the king with Osiris in the pyramid
texts marks the conception of a better immortality for him. So,
as the possibility of a better immortality was claimed by wider
and wider circles of men, the use of the pyramid texts, or
similar texts, also became wider. In the Middle Empire, texts
practically identical with the pyramid texts, but furnished with
illustrations somewhat like those of the later books of the dead,
are found in the coffins of provincial nobles.

The power of the monarchy had been weakening during the Fifth and
Sixth Dynasties, partly owing to the dissipation of national
resources by royal extravagance, partly owing to other causes.
After the Sixth Dynasty, the country was clearly in a period of
economic depression; and the government was broken up into a
series of nearly independent baronies corresponding roughly to
the later division into provinces or nomes. Our material is
scanty. The tombs of very few great men have been found. But when
in the Twelfth Dynasty an abundance of material is at hand, we
see, alongside the old forms of the burial customs, the use of
the pyramid texts on the inside walls of the coffins of the great
man. It was now possible for the _ba_ of the great landed noble
to seek refuge with the gods in the northwest heavens and share
their life.

The increasing importance of Abydos as the burial place of Osiris
is of still greater significance. The tomb of a king of the First
Dynasty was identified by the priests as the actual burial place
of Osiris. Many great people made graves for themselves in the
same field; or, if they lived at a distance, built empty
cenotaphs there. A great temple of Osiris stood near by, and