Nefer Phoebes Stela (Cemetery 1200 / Tomb g 1207) A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley, 6–19801. Photograph by Bruce White Material: Painted limestone; raised relief carving / Measurements: h. 38 cm; w. 50.8 cm; th. 8.2 cm Excavation history: Hearst Expedition, University of California, under G.A. Reisner, April– May, 1904; found in situ set into emplacement in chapel niche between two thick mud-brick walls. Nefer (often translated Nefr[et]) sits on a lion-legged stool with exquisitely detailed modeling and a large papyrus umbel terminal but no seat cushion). She is placed upon a raised mat/platform, although the table before her remains on the ground line. Nefer’s right hand extends towards the offering loaves, as do the right hands of all stela owners, but her left is open against her chest. Her garment shows the customary shoulder straps that, according to Egyptian profile conventions, leave the breast exposed. She is adorned with bracelets and a long, striated, tripartite wig, which reveals a well-detailed ear. Nefer’s name and single title “Acquaintance of the king, Nefer” are restricted to the area immediately above her head. The central area is taken up with the offering list, and the linen list occupies the full height of the decorated frame of the stela. Vertical separators are shown between the offerings listed. Nefer’s offering table shows a symmetrical number of half-loaves, eight per side, totaling sixteen and displays the triangular opening at the very bottom of the stand, rather than some distance up from the bottom. The linen list is with six idmy falcons, and no less than nine compartments in each of four linen sections. Fischer notes that this slab stela shows a determinative at the end of the deceased’s name. The “redundant determinative” is the only complete human-figure hieroglyph. Date: g 1207 is presumed to belong to the second phase of mastabas constructed in Cemetery 1200, as this portion of the Necropolis expanded from east to west. Nefer’s slab stela should thus follow after the tombs of Wepemnefret (g 1201), Kanefer (g 1203), Khufu-nakht (g 1205), Kaiemah (g 1223), and Nefret-iabet (g 1225), but still date to the reign of Khufu. The second decade of that king’s reign provides the most likely date for the stela. Source: SLAB STELAE OF THE GIZA NECROPOLIS by by Peter Der Manuelian (2008) https://academia.edu/295377/Slab_Stelae_of_the_Giza_Necropolis
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 14:12:48 +0000
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