Egypt: Inventory Stela
Marlok
Giza in the XIX century from August Mariette and currently guarded in the
Museum of the Cairo, or a copy of the hieroglyphic in her contained, a photo
or any other news that any speaks.
Marlok
Katherine Griffis
The Inventory Stela is a limestone stela measuring 70 x 42 cm. It
purports to be a copy of an ancient stela that existed inside the Temple
of Isis beside the Great Pyramid. However, Selim Hassan points out that
it is a much later work, likely created between the Kushite and Saite
dynasties, primarily due to terms on the stela (such as referring to the
Sphinx as Hwran, a name not used for the Sphinx until the 18th - 20th
dynasties). Creation of "archaicized" or pseudoepigraphic works is a
common feature of Late Period dynasties, as a means of "justifying"
groups, acts or events.
This is a translation from _The Sphinx: Its History in Light of Recent
Excavations_, Selim Hassan (Government Press: Cairo, 1949), which Hassan
takes from Maspero's original translation:
"Live Horus the Mezer, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Khufu, given
life.
He made for his mother Isis, the Divine Mother, Mistress of the Western
Mountain [1], a decree made on a stela, he gave to her a divine
offering, and he built her a temple of stone, renewing what he had
found, namely the gods in her place.
Live Horus, the Mezer, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Khufu, given
life.
He found the House of Isis, Mistress of the Pyramid, by the side of the
cavity of the Sphinx, on the north-west side of the House of Osiris,
Lord of Rostaw, and he built his pyramid beside the temple of this
Goddess, and he built a pyramid for the King's Daughter, Henut-sen,
beside this temple.
The place of Hwran-Hor-em-akhet is on the south of the House of Isis,
Mistress of the Pyramid, and on the north of Osiris, Lord of Rostaw.
The plans of the Image of Hor-em-akhet were brought in order to bring to
revision the sayings of the disposition of the Image of the Very
Redoubtable. He restored the statue all covered in painting, of the
Guardian of the Atmosphere, who guides the winds with his gaze. He made
to quarry the hind part of the nemes headdress, which was lacking, from
gilded stone, and which had a length of about 7 ells [3.7 metres].
He came to make a tour, in order to see the thunderbolt, which stands in
the Place of the Sycamore, so named because of a great sycamore, whose
branched were struck when the Lord of Heaven descended upon the place of
Hor-em-akhet, and also this image, retracing the erasure according to
the above-mentioned disposition, which is written {...} of all the
animals killed at Rostaw. It is a table for the vases full of these
animals which, except for the thighs, were eaten nears these seven gods,
demanding {...} (The God gave) the thought in his heart, of putting a
written decree on the side of this Sphinx, in an hour of the night. [2]
The figure of this God, being cut in stone, is solid, and will exist to
eternity, having always its face regarding the Orient. [3]"
Notes:
[1] Hassan's note: The necropolis.
[2] Hassan's note: As on the Stela of Thutmosis IV, the God gives his
instructions in the form of a dream.
[3] The east.
Hassan continues:
"The main part of the panel of the stela is occupied by representations
of the sacred statues and emblems, supposed to have been found by Khufu,
and each is accompanied by an explanation of the material of which it is
made, its height, and of course, the name and title of the deity is
represents.
[snip of the discussion of whether a thunderbolt had struck the Sphinx,
which Hassan concedes is possible, but cannot be dated to the time of
Khufu ].
As a matter of fact, the whole stela, in its form, style of inscription
and decoration, and the similarity of its writing with that of the
graffiti in the small chapel of the temple, all point to it being
entirely the work of the 26th Dynasty. The most damning evidence
against it, dating from the Old Kingdom, are the names Hwran and
Hor-em-akhet given to the Sphinx, which, as we have already seen, do not
occur before the 18th Dynasty, and also the titles of some of the gods,
which also were not used at this early period!
Maspero states that in his opinion (1) the Inventory Stela is not an
original document dedicated by Khufu, but is a later copy, or perhaps a
forgery, made a long time after the death of Khufu, to support some
fictitious claims of the local priests: 'The Temple of Isis was rebuilt
where it was found during the 21st Dynasty, by the Tanite King,
Pasebekhanu (2), and the stela must have been made or restored under
this king, or perhaps under the Ethiopian Pharaohs. If it is a copy of
a decayed monument, it probably preserves the arrangement of the
original.'
It is, as Maspero says, quite possible that this stela is a copy of an
older document, such copies being known to exist, but even so, it cannot
possibly date back as far as it pretends, namely to the reign of Khufu,
for the reasons we have just seen."
(1) Hassan's note: Maspero, _A Guide to the Cairo Museum_ (1910), p.
65.
(2) Either Psusennes I or II - KGG
_The Sphinx: Its History in Light of Recent Excavations_, Selim Hassan
(Government Press: Cairo, 1949), pp. 222-226.
HTH.
Regards --
Katherine Griffis-Greenberg
Member, American Research Center in Egypt
International Association of Egyptologists
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Special Studies
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