Funerary Stela
Description
<p>This stela, or tombstone, commemorates four people. Each is shown seated in a high-backed chair, the feet of which resemble animal legs. Between the pairs are offering tables heaped with food. Jars of liquid offerings are shown above the tables, but they are meant to be interpreted as being behind or next to the tables.Four lines of hieroglyphic text identify the stela's owners and request offerings on their behalf. The first line names the principal owner, a woman named Khety; the second, her brother Sobek-re; the third, a man named Sa-wedjat; and the fourth, his brother Khety. Khety was a "unisex" name in ancient Egypt and is borne by both the female owner and the third male owner. The two pairs were probably related, but the relationship is not stated. The costume and the architectural element at the top resemble Old Kingdom models.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/22.125' rel='external'>Funerary Stela</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>
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- Walters 22.125 PNM text
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A painted limestone funerary stela showing carved registers of seated/standing figures flanking offering or offering-table imagery, with surrounding hieroglyphic text in horizontal bands.
The object is a rectangular, rounded-arch stela carved in relief. The upper frieze and the main field are divided by horizontal lines into multiple registers. In the central area, a larger offering-table or support is depicted, with figures (one on the left and one on the right) shown facing inward, sometimes holding implements. Beneath and above, additional carved elements and smaller iconographic scenes occupy separate bands. Hieroglyphs surround the figural scenes in continuous rows across the upper and lower parts of the stela face. The surface shows traces consistent with pigment remaining in recesses, matching the catalogue note of painted limestone. No Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible. A royal name/cartouche is not clearly legible at this resolution, so none is confidently identified. Likewise, specific deities are not securely identifiable from the image alone.
Cross-references (3)
- PNM-Object pnm:83889431 tier-2 (inventory-match)
- Walters-AccNum 22.125 tier-2
- Walters-id 2524 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.