May Your Good Name Be Eternal! (Funerary Relief Slabs from Saqqara and Abusir)

Vol.7,No.2(2016)

Břetislav Vachala

https://doi.org/10.5817/AI2016-2-23

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Abstract
There were found four interesting funerary limestone relief slabs in the Memphide necropolis in the past, which remained yet unpublished and are so far unknown. Two of them were discovered in 1966 in the area to the west of the Nefer tomb, near the Unas causeway in Saqqara, by Ahmed Moussa (reg. nos. 16 204 a, 16 204 b: Figs. 1–4), and the third one in 1994 on the western border of the contemporary Muslim cemetery at Abusir by Mohammed M. Youssef and his colleagues (reg. no. 19 156: Figs. 5, 6). The central dominant motif in the decoration of these slabs represents the offering-table scene, where the owner receives his offerings of bread, furthermore beer, wine, meat, fowl, earth almonds, oils, incense, linen (of different types and numbers), etc. Their names are occasionally added. The owners of the stelae are certain Tisatjet (m.; reg. no. 16204 a), Nesptah (f.; reg. no. 16 204 b) and Denegneferef (m.; reg. no. 19 156). One can suggest to date the slabs to the late Archaic Period (mid Dynasty 2: reg. no. 16 204 a; late Dynasty 2: reg. no. 19 156) and the early Old Kingdom (late Dynasty 3: reg. no. 16 204 b). A similar limestone relief slab belonging to an unknown person was recently found in the South Abusir cemetery by the Czech archaeological mission (exc. no. 15/AS 39/2013: Figs. 7, 8). Its possible dating is early Dynasty 4.

Keywords:
Ancient Egyptian funerary relief slabs; Saqqara; Abusir; mortuary cult; funerary repast
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