Asset number
405135001
Description
Red granite sarcophagus lid of Setau: a massive anthropoid sarcophagus lid inscribed with texts for the viceroy of Kush, Setau. On the lid, beneath the head, is a seated figure of Nut, who is named, and beneath this a single column of text with a prayer to Nut on behalf of Setau. A line of text runs around the edge of the lid below the shoulders, interrupted at intervals by short lines of text inscribed at right angles to the main line, creating six panels on the lower half of the lid. The main text consists of two balancing inscriptions which begin at each shoulder, both containing standard sarcophagus texts addressed to Geb and Nut. The transverse bands of text, five on each side, presumably continued from the lid down the sides of the sarcophagus which is now lost. In the four upper texts on each side Setau, whose name is lost, is described as a person revered before various funerary and canopic deities: on one side [name lost] either Hapy or Amsety, Anubis, Duamutef and Geb; and on the other side [name lost] either Hapy or Amsety, Anubis, Qebhsenuef and Dunanwy. The fifth transverse line on each side contains the name and titles of Setau. The six panels on the lower part of the sarcophagus contain figures in sunk relief and incised texts. In the upper four panels Setau is shown adoring various deities before each of whom is an altar with offerings: Osiris in the upper two scenes; Anubis and Hapy in the lower scenes. The two panels at the foot of the coffin depict, in opposite order to the rest of the scenes and inscriptions, the goddesses Isis and Nephthys in an attitude of mourning. The lid has been broken in two and rejoined in modern times. The foot of the lid is damaged and the foot-end is lost. There are no traces of colour.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Using this image
Commercial use
To license images for charged-for journals and publications, and other commercial uses, please contact British Museum Images.
Contact BM images
Non-commercial use
You are permitted to use images from the British Museum website subject to our terms of use.
The image will be released to you under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. You can read more about the British Museum and Creative Commons here.
Download this image
New photography
If you cannot see an image that you want on the British Museum website, you can order new photography from us.
Order new image
