stela
- Museum number
- EA8481
- Description
-
Sycomore fig wood stela of Astemakhbit: there are three registers on this round-topped stela. In the upper section is a winged sun-disk with two uraei and two recumbent jackals holding sceptres. In the middle register the deceased stood on the right before an altar heaped with offerings. Behind it stand Ra, Atum, Khepri, Shu, an effaced deity (Tefnut?), and Anubis. Six lines of text in the third register contain a prayer on behalf of the sistrum-player of Amun-Ra Ast(em)khbit, apparently daughter of Pʒ-dỉ-'lmn-nb-nswt-tʒwy and a sistrum-player of Amun-Ra whose name is lost. On the back is painted a rising sun between standards, one of the West on the right and the other lost. Space has been left for two pedestals, now lost, at the bottom of the stela. The right side of the stela, which was made from a separate plank of wood joined by dowels, is now lost. The surviving part of the stela is badly damaged along the top and sides. The surface is cracked and effaced in places. There is a red border around the stela and a multi-coloured border of blue, red, blue, and green rectangles separated by one black and two white stripes along presumably three sides and between the registers. The background of the stela is yellow. At the top is a curved blue sky. The disk is red with yellow uraei which have blue heads and red disks. The wings are blue with a yellow patch with red dots. The area between the uraei is white with red dots. The jackals are black with red sashes and faded blue flags. The text here is black as it is elsewhere. At the top of the middle register beneath the border is a frieze of green, blue, and red ovals on a white background and a blue sky. Only the edge of the white dress of the deceased is visible. The altar is blue and the offerings blue and red. The deities had red bodies and hands, green aprons, blue wigs, black sceptres, and black-striped yellow collars for the first four. Ra has a yellow face and red disk, while that of Atum is green with a red and white crown. Khepri and Shu have red faces and black head-dresses. The fifth deity has a red disk, while Anubis has a dark (green or black) face. There is a blue curve at the end of the register. The border between the middle and lower register lacks the separating black stripes between the rectangles. The text in the lower register is black on alternating white and yellow backgrounds between alternating red and blue dividing lines. The sides were plastered. The scene on the back is red on a white painted background.
- Dimensions
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Height: 41 centimetres
-
Weight: 1.04 kilograms
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Thickness: 3 centimetres
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Width: 23.50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Bibliography:
The British Museum, 'A Guide to the Third and Fourth Egyptian Rooms' (London, 1904), p. 77 (no. 98);
E. A. Wallis Budge 'A Guide to the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Egyptian Rooms, and the Coptic Room' (London, 1922), p. 108 (no. 10);
P. Munro, ‘Die spätägyptischen Totenstelen’ (Glückstadt, 1973), p. 242;
M. Bietak & E. Reisner-Haslauer, 'Das Grab des ʻAnch-Hor, Obersthofmeister der Gottesgemahlin Nitokris' (Vienna, 1982), p. 254 note 483.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- incomplete - right edge lost(plank missing)
- Department
- Egypt and Sudan
- BM/Big number
- EA8481
- Registration number
- .8481
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: BS.8481 (Birch Slip Number)
