Ancient Egyptians used a correction liquid similar to Wite-Out or Tipp-Ex to fix mistakes in ancient texts, researchers at the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge have discovered. 

While preparing a papyrus for the museum’s upcoming “Made in Ancient Egypt” exhibit, conservators noticed a thick white pigment lining the body of a jackal illustrated in one of the scenes.

The papyrus, a Book of the Dead made for the senior royal scribe Ramose, was originally discovered in 1922 in Egypt by British archaeologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie at the Sedment al-Gebel site, 70 miles south of Cairo. 

Petrie found the book in hundreds of fragments. While most of the book has been painstakingly reconstructed by archaeologists, there are fragments that they have not been able to reassemble  “but which must have been part of additional spells,” according to the museum.

The book is estimated to be about 20 meters long when fully intact.

The corrected scene, depicting Ramose being accompanied into the afterlife by a jackal-headed god, was edited by the illustrator to make the jackal appear slimmer.

At the time, the white liquid would’ve appeared as more of a cream color and been easily blended into the papyrus. 

“Transmitted light infrared photography has allowed us to see through the white pigment, which reveals that these white lines were painted deliberately over parts of the black body and back legs, changing the way the jackal appears,” The Telegraph quoted Exhibit Curator Helen Strudwick as saying.

“It’s as if someone saw the original way the jackal was painted and said ‘it’s too fat; make it thinner’, so the artist has made a kind of ancient Egyptian ‘Tipp-Ex’ – also known as ‘Wite-Out’ or ‘Liquid Paper’ – to fix it.”

According to the Telegraph, Strudwick believes she has seen evidence that the correction liquid was used on other ancient Egyptian artifacts, including Nakht’s Book of the Dead, housed in the British Museum, and the papyrus of Yuya, held in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.

The “Made in Ancient Egypt” exhibition will run until April 12, 2026.