Object Biography #24: An erased stela of Tutankhamun(?)

This unobtrusive limestone stela (Acc. no. 2938) was found by Egyptian workmen employed by Egyptologist Arthur Mace (1874-1928) at the sacred site of Abydos. Like many other monuments set up there over the centuries, it might be assumed simply to be a tribute to the local god, Osiris, but the iconography and composition of the scene is unusual. Although found broken, and with clear evidence of erasure to the identifying inscription, is one of the most intriguing – but little-known – pieces in Manchester’s collection.

Stela 2938. From Abydos. Photo: Julia Thorne @tetisheri

To begin with the lower register; this shows the expected figure of Osiris, seated at the right, with five figures approaching him – four of them uncaptioned and therefore unidentified. These consist of two women and two men, each of apparently elite status and in the pose of adoration – in keeping iconographically with depictions of kinship groups on many late New Kingdom stelae. However, the group is led by a royal male figure identified as ‘Djeserkare’ – the revered king Amenhotep I. This is unusual, as the overall iconography of the piece dates to very late Dynasty 18  – long after Amenhotep I had died. Usually, posthumous depictions of this deified king show him as passive and in receipt of offerings; it is also uncommon to find a king (let alone a deified king) leading – and in some sense in the same sphere as – a group of apparently non-royal people.

Detail of the stela of the sculptor Qen, showing the deified Queen Ahmose-Nefertari and King Amenhotep I. MMA 51.93

The upper register is even more intriguing. It shows three royal figures approaching Amun-Re, who is captioned with his name and the epithet ‘Lord of the Sky, Ruler of Thebes’. He is accompanied on this top register by the standing figures of (from left to right) the deified Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, the ‘Lord of the Two Lands’ Nebpehtyre (= Ahmose I), and an active (i.e. living/reigning) king, whose name has been erased. The stela thus shows no fewer than three historical royal figures – reflecting an awareness of history at Abydos that is echoed in another Abydos monument (possibly a statue base) naming several kings also in Manchester. In addition to being regarded as a founder of the New Kingdom, Ahmose I is well-known as a builder at Abydos – while Amenhotep I and his mother Ahmose-Nefetari were venerated at the Theban workers town of Deir el-Medina.

Ahmose I(?) embraces Osiris. Detail of a block from his Abydos complex. Manchester Museum 3303

The style of the figures, and the offering Pharaoh in particular, have a distinctly Amarna feel – but given the scene shows the worship of Amun, it can hardly show Akhenaten or his immediate successor(s). Tutankhamun is a strong possibility, perhaps a way of reasserting the dominance of Amun even at Abydos and reconnecting with the orthodoxy symbolised by older rulers. Certainly, Tutankhamun’s name was erased after his death because of his association with the Amarna interlude. His short-lived successor Aye may also be considered for the same reason. Horemheb and Ramesses I are also a less-likely possibility, as it is not clear why their names would have been subsequently removed.

It is perhaps ironic that the pharaoh who commissioned the stela to show his connection with great kings of the past should have been so conspicuously forgotten.

 

The stela will appear with several other objects from Manchester Museum in the exhibition ‘Toutankhamon. À la découverte du pharaon oublié’, in Liége in Belgium between December 2019 and July 2020.

The exhibition ‘Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh’ opens at the Saatchi Gallery, London, on Saturday 2^nd November.

 

Texts in translation #6: A stela of Peniwemiteru (Acc. No. R4571 1937)

Acc. no. TN R4571/1937 © Paul Cliff

This small (18.5 cms high) slate(?) stela was once in the possession of a Mr R. G. Stannard, before entering the collection of Sir Henry Wellcome and subsequently being transferred to the Manchester Museum. The upper part of the stela shows a winged sun-disc, under which two rams face each other. The ram was an animal sacred to the god Amun-Re, as made explicit in the hieroglyphs above each of them. Four lines of inscription are below, which contain an ‘offering formula’ – the most common text found on ancient Egyptian monuments.

The formula was a list of goods that the deceased would require in the afterlife, which – by being listed – are magical substitutes for the goods themselves. The aspect of the deceased believed to consume the offerings was the ka – the spirit of sustenance and life-force that came into existence at birth, and was envisioned as an invisible twin.

All offerings to the gods were in principal made by the king. Temple walls only ever show the king performing rituals, rather than the priests who would in practice have carried them out. Clearly, the gods did not eat the provisions placed in front of their statues, but rather absorbed the spiritual essence of them. This meant that the foodstuffs could then be offered to deceased persons and ultimately passed on to the priests who performed rituals, as payment.

Transcription of the hieroglyphs on the stela made by H. R. Hall (PBSA 30, 1908, p. 8).

This short text is slightly damaged in places and contains a number of variations on the standard offering formula, for which it is difficult to find exact parallels. This is a common problem in Egyptology, so here is my own tentative translation:

An offering which the king gives to Amun-Re, Lord of the Sky, that he may give his daily favours, and the good life, for his ka. Noble Ptah, lord of life and dominion, causes provisions to be brought in therefrom for the ka of the goldsmith Peniwemiteru.

“Daily favours” seems likely refer to a regular supply of food offerings. H. R. Hall, who published the piece in 1908, read the words aqw m rxyt im=f on line 3 as “entrance among the rekhyt-people who are with him”. Ken Griffin, who is completing a doctoral thesis on the rekhyt, thinks this unlikely, and I am inclined to agree that this seems out of context. Instead, a reference to offerings would be expected here and so the word mrxw, a rather uncommon term meaning “provisions” or “offerings”, seems to make more sense. The name of the owner, Peniwemiteru, means ‘He of Island-in-the-River’ – a place near Gebelein in Upper Egypt.

Any alternative readings would be most welcome!

Texts in translation #5: An ostracon showing Amun-Re as a ram (Acc. no. 9658)

Acc. no. 9658. © Paul Cliff

I recently received an enquiry about the short inscription on this pottery sherd – or ostracon. The piece comes from the collection of Mr George Spiegelberg, a merchant in Manchester and brother of the famous German Egyptologist Wilhelm Spiegelberg (1870-1930). The ostracon shows the head of a ram deity with a rearing cobra before it, sketched first in red and then gone over in black.

The vertical caption reads: Beloved of Amun-Re, Lord of the Sky, Great God.
The text above the ram’s head reads: Amun-Re, the Light of Day.

The provenance of the sherd is most likely to be the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1069 BC) village of Deir el-Medina, built to house the workers involved in the construction of tombs in and around the Valley of the Kings. Hundreds of similar sketches on limestone flakes or pottery sherds – in some sense the equivalent of modern ‘post-it’ notes – have been discovered there. Deir el-Medina was home to a variety of deities, local forms – differentiated by the addition of various epithets – of the gods worshipped in major state temples. Amun-Re was worshipped on the opposite side of the river to the village, at the great temple of Karnak, and is well attested in other contexts in the form of a ram. Here his epithet is ‘Shu en heru’. Shu was the god of air and sunlight, so a literal rendering of the text is ‘the light of day’.

The ostracon was most probably a draughtsman’s trial piece. Apprentices learnt to sketch in red, before a more experienced draughtsman went over this outline in black, correcting any mistakes. While the flake may have had a functional use as a practice piece, it could have served a votive function – as a record of piety – in and of itself.

Although no one is named as being ‘beloved’ of the god (it seems unlikely to me that the name has broken off), the rest of the text all appears to have been written entirely in black. The hieroglyphs fit around the image, within the edges of the sherd – suggesting the text is by a different, more confident hand than the first red outline. By the addition of this short caption, a draughtsman’s sketch is transformed into an explicit depiction of a god.