stela
- Museum number
- EA8478
- Description
-
Sycomore fig wood stela of Irthorru: there are four registers of varying length on this round-topped stela. A winged sun-disk with two uraei appears at the top of the stela. Below is a line of text with a prayer to Osiris. The deceased stands on the right of the scene in the third register. His arms are raised in adoration before an altar on which rests a water-pot cooled by a lotus-flower. On the other side of the altar stand Osiris, a winged Isis enfolding an 'wedjat'-eye, and the four sons of Horus. At the bottom four lines of text contain a prayer to Ra-Horakhty and Atum on behalf of Irethorru, son of Pʒ (?)-hʒ.... The four sections of the stela are separated by multi-coloured borders. The stela is not in a good state of preservation. The surface is cracked and worn and the surviving colour has faded. The original background appears to have been white. The registers are divided by multi-coloured borders of blue and red rectangles separated by one black and two white stripes edged in black. The disk is red with blackened upper wings having pink patches with black dots and blue lower wings edged in red. The uraei have red bodies, blue heads, and a red and white crown respectively. The hieroglyphs in the upper register are red, blue, and black. The line of text in the second register is black. The deceased has a red body, blue wig, and now black collar and kilt, possibly originally dark green. The altar is blue with a blue red-topped pot. The lotus has a blackened stem and leaves, red base, and blue and white flower. Ra-Horakhty has a white face with black features, a white crown with blackened feathers edged in red, blue wig, pink collar, red hands, and blackened body and sceptre. The wings of Isis are coloured the same as the winged disk. Her dress is red, her wig and head-dress apparently blue, and her face and body now black. The eye is blue with a black pupil on white and a red band between eye and eyebrow. The four sons of Horus have black bodies, pink collars, and blue wigs. The face of Imsety is red with a black beard, that of Hapy is red, of Duamutef black, and of Qebhsenuef white with black features. The text at the bottom is black between blue dividing lines. The back and sides were lightly plastered; much of this has worn away.
- Dimensions
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Height: 40.50 centimetres
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Weight: 1.125 kilograms
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Thickness: 2.50 centimetres
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Width: 27.70 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Bibliography:
The British Museum, 'A Guide to the Third and Fourth Egyptian Rooms' (London, 1904), p. 77 (no. 97);
E. A. Wallis Budge 'A Guide to the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Egyptian Rooms, and the Coptic Room' (London, 1922), p. 111 (no. 26);
P. Munro, ‘Die spätägyptischen Totenstelen’ (Glückstadt, 1973), p. 222.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- poor - surface cracked and discoloured
- Department
- Egypt and Sudan
- BM/Big number
- EA8478
- Registration number
- .8478
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: BS.8478 (Birch Slip Number)