NEW KINGDOM, 19TH-20TH DYNASTY, 1295-1069 B.C.

Unusual in format as well as decoration, this round-topped stele features figures of Isis and Horus, before whom a small figure of a man kneels with his arms raised in veneration. Stylistically, the carving bears some resemblance to the series of over 100 so-called “Horbeit” stelae from Qantir dating to the Ramesside period, most of which feature an adorant with little added inscription. The only hieroglyphic element on this relief is the locational term “Behdet,” occurring below the sun-disk, which is flanked by uraei from which ankhs hang. A jar stand with a vase and a lotus sits before Isis, while Horus pours a cascade of repeating ankh- and was-symbols out of a libation (hes) vase. The large protruding ledge at the bottom of the stele is unusual, perhaps indicating that it had a place in domestic cult. For an example of a 19th Dynasty stele from Mit Rahina exhibiting a similar ledge, now in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, see p. 23 in T.G. Wilfong, Women and Gender in Ancient Egypt from Prehistory to Late Antiquity.