630 Gloria Rosati
it can be presented still and reviewed for several purposes and firstly in a
GLORIA ROSATI
The Stela of the ‘Master-Sculptor’ Shen-Setji: A Review
The stela I am interested in belongs to a group of documents which are fun-
damental ones to reconstruct the history of the national sanctuary of Osiris at
Abydos during the Middle Kingdom. I had to study it when I was gathering
documents for my dissertation at the University of Florence, while at the
same time I was preparing my last examinations on different subjects, such as
Semitic Philology with the Assistant Paolo Marrassini. I wish to dedicate in
memory of him my little contribution, looking back at a fruitful and untrou-
bled period.
Stela Los Angeles County Museum of Art 50.33.31 (fig. 1; formerly
A.5141.50–876; limestone, h. cm 88,9 x 38,1 1 ) is reported to come from
Abydos2 though its history is quite complex: seen for the first time in Rome,
after a series of acquisitions it was presented to the Los Angeles Museum by
Mr. W.R. Hearst in 1935. Its provenance is assured however by textual data.
It was published for the first time by R.O. Faulkner in 19523 and is usu-
ally considered in the principal studies concerning autobiographies, history
and religion of the Middle Kingdom.4 It seems that everything has been told
about this stela and its topics;5 nevertheless, in my opinion, for its importance
1 As reported in the file of the Museum website (http://collections.lacma.org/node/230235):
the stone is still kept mounted in a concrete rectangular block, so it is not possible to meas-
ure the thickness.
2 C(apart) 1931: 135.
3 Faulkner 1952: 3–5 with Pl. I.
4 The main additions to its first edition are actually Lichtheim 1988: 90–92; Obsomer 1995:
542–546. Lately, some passages translated in Favry 2009: 188, 191, 194. Strangely, it is not
considered in Spiegel 1973.
5 As a matter of fact, it seems that anyone who has commented upon this monument so far
has never seen it personally, probably from the very first publication (Faulkner 1952: 3 and
teaching program. So I think it’s not useless to review the situation and to re-
sume here its main points.
General description
Upright rectangular slab with rounded top, quite slender (its height more than
twice its width). Quite good conservation, though the bottom right corner is
lost, and the bottom edge chipped; a few parts chipped and scraped off in the
right edge and in the lunette. Decoration on the whole surface, without bor-
ders or incised outlines: on the lunette and nearly a half of the rectangular
field, main hieroglyphic inscription of 15 lines,6 right to left, plus date and
elongated cartouche at the top of the lunette. Below, three registers: (1) two
sitting couples and offering bearers; (2) and (3) row of twelve relatives in
each one. Under the third register, a line of personal names, which have big-
ger determinatives, perhaps replacing figures.
Translation
Lunette, top:
Year [ ] under [the Person of:]
[(Long) live (?) Horus ] Ankh-mesuta, King of Upper and Lower Egypt
Kheperkara, beloved by Osiris, may he liveb forever.
Main text:
An offering which [the King] has given, and Osiris Khentimentyu, Lord
of Abydos, and Wepwawet Lord of the Sacred Land, and Anubis [Who is
above] his Mountain: may he givec an invocation-offering of a thousand of
bread and beer, a thousand of oxen and fowl, a thousand of alabaster vases
n. 4), and myself, alas, as well. So we do not know yet details that could be interesting: e.g.
traces of colors on the figures and in the inscriptions, which however are not visible in the
image to be found in the Museum website (see n. 1): the surface of the stone looks rather
dark.
6 Inscribed lines are separated by incised parallel lines, which however are not visible, and
very probably absent, under lines 3–5 of the main text. A long text filling both lunette and a
large part of the field is not unusual on MK stelae, at least early in the period. A similar very
tall and narrow stela, though rectangular, and so without lunette, but with elongated car-
touche including even the date, is BM 572: Simpson 1974: pl. 12.