Friday, December 25, 2015

Stela of Amenyseneb

Fig. 1 - Stela of Amenyseneb
       This steal is double sided with inscriptions on both the front and the back. One side (not pictured here) shows fields being plowed, grain being harvested and food being prepared. Some of the laborers in this scene are marked as Asiatics, illustrating the increased presence of foreigners in Egypt during the end of the Middle Kingdom. The side that is pictured here has Amenyseneb shown on the left opposite his father (?). Between the two men is a large ankh. Unlike the stela shown in the previous post, this ankh is only hollow in the loop, the rest of the ankh is deeply incised, but is not hollowed out (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 2 - Stela of Amenyseneb showing Wepwawet
Fig. 3 - Sela of Amenyseneb, showing his mother (lower right)
     Amenyseneb is shown with his hands raised in a gesture of adoration or respect. He is wearing a kilt and a broad collar which still has green paint on it (see fig. 2). "Wepwawet of Upper Egypt" is represented as a jackal above Amenyseneb's head. It is possible that "Wepwawet of Lower Egypt" was originally shown above Amenseneb's father, but we cannot be sure as that portion of the stela is broken off (Oppenheim, Adela, ed. Egypt Transformed, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015, pp. 268 - 9). The mother of the stela's owner kneels in front of her son, to her right his two sisters are shown (see fig. 3, lower right).

     This man is known from two other stelae, one of which bears the name of the Thirteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Khendjer.




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