Details

Object type

stela fragment

Place Associated

Africa, Egypt, Upper Egypt, Abydos, Osiris temenos (place found)

Date

New Kingdom,19th Dynasty, 1295-1186 BC

Materials

limestone

Dimensions

overall: 495 mm x 290 mm x 125 mm 23.26 kg

Description

These four fragments of a limestone stela were found at Abydos, re-used in a later stone building. They were given to Glasgow Museums in 1902 by the Egypt Exploration Fund, sponsor of Flinders Petrie’s excavations there, which Glasgow Museums helped finance through membership of the Fund.

They join together to form the lower part of a large stela dedicated to Khay, the Chief Reporter of the King. Two small fragments from the lower right corner of the stela are now missing, but are known from the drawing in Petrie’s publication.

Three registers of the stela are preserved. The uppermost depicts the lower parts of a female and male figure standing behind a throne and in front of a nome standard. The middle register shows the deceased and his wife seated before a table of offerings and faced by three seated members of their family, all captioned by hieroglyphs. The lowest register has the main hieroglyphic inscription, consisting of an offering formula incised in two rows, which ensures that offerings will be made magically to the ka of the deceased for ever. It reads: 'An offering which the king gives to Osiris, [the one in front of] the westerners, lord of the sacred land, so that he may give a voice-offering of oxen and fowl, cold water, wine and milk [for the ka of] the chief royal reporter of the Lord of the Twin Lands, one who reported [what is said] of the two banks, Khay, true of voice, son of the dignitary [Hai]'. As only the king could act as an intermediary between people and the gods, the formula says that the king will give offerings to Osiris, god of the dead (those who live in the west), so that he may share these with the deceased Khay in the afterlife. The style of the costumes worn by the figures indicates that the stela dates to the 19th Dynasty.

This fragment preserves the lower left side of the middle and bottom surviving registers of the stela. The lower parts of Khay and his wife Yam’s bodies are shown seated beside each other. They both wear costumes of fine diaphanous linen with pleated sleeves. In his left hand Khay holds the sceptre of his authority across his chest, and, in his right hand, a long bolt of linen, symbolising his elite status. Yam holds a flower in her right hand. Below them are the hieroglyphs which begin the two rows of the standard offering formula.

Credit Line/Donor

Gifted by the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1902

ID Number

1902.116.n.3

Location

In storage