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  • image M447

Stela of Neny [or Neni]

c.900 BC
XXIInd Dynasty

Limestone

Height: 54cm
Width: 33cm

Museum number: M447

Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 31help-vermeule-catalogue-number

On display: Basement West Corridor
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house. For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit

Curatorial note

Top: Couchant jackal on stand of divinity, facing to centre. On left, Up-uaut (Opener of the Roads) of the South; on right, Up-uaut of the North. Between them the sceptre-emblem of Toth, reading Sekhem 'Power'. Below the Jackals are three horizontal lines of inscription reading from right to left.

Lower part: Standing figure of Neny facing right. In his left hand he holds a long shaft, in his right hand a cloth. He wears a skull cap, a necklace, on the right wrist a bracelet, and a short loincloth, over which is a mid-calf skirt tied at the waist with a wide sash with long ends. On his feet are sandals with strap along the instep connected with strap from side of heel. Behind his head is a continuation of the horizontal inscription in a vertical line.

On the right is a standing figure of a man offering a vase of perfume in each hand. He wears a skull-cap, short loincloth with triangular apron in front and sandals like Neny's. Between him and Neny is a short horizontal inscription reading from left to right, then two vertical lines of inscription reading from left to right.

Below is the figure of another standing man, also facing Neny. He holds in his left hand a bird, by its wings, in his right hand a lotus flower and two birds. He wears skull-cap, short loincloth and sandals like Neny's. Between him and Neny is a single vertical line of hieroglyphs, the inscription is continued in the blank space under the bird.

Inscription is as follows:

May give a royal offering Min-Hor, victorious in Abydos. May he give

Acquittal [lit.: truth of voice] in the Nether World to the ka of the Chief of the Prophets [lit: Servants of God], Neny, true of voice, possessor of worthiness.

By the Overseer of the House of the Divine Offerings in Abydos, Aku, true of voice, who causes his name to live in the Nether World.

Born of Deda, true of voice.

1-4. May Min-Hor, the Victor in Abydos, give a royal offering. May he give acquittal in the Nether World to the Ka of the Chief of the Prophets, Neny, deceased, the lord of worthiness. Said by the Overseer of the divine offerings in Abydos, A-ku, deceased, who made his name to live in the Nether World. Born of Deda, deceased.

Salutation with four vases of perfume.

May give a royal offering Osiris, Leader of the Westerners [i.e. the dead].

For the Ka of the Overseer of the House of Divine Offerings, Aku, true of voice.

His son Min-em-kha-f, true of voice, born of [continues on the side] Hemut-ankh, true of voice.

6-7. May Osiris, Chief of the Dead, give a royal offering for the Ka of Min-em-Khaf, deceased, born of Hemut-ankh, deceased.

Note: The expression "True of voice" means acquittal at the Judgement after death, but was commonly used to signify "deceased".

Provenance help-art-provenance

Unrecorded; in Soane's collection by 1834 when it is shown in a watercolour view of the basement west corridor, 'View in the "Belzoni Chamber" from the South West Angle' (SM Vol. 82/125). In 1836 this stele was commented upon by a Dr. C. Leemans of Leiden, Netherlands in correspondence with Sir John Soane (Soane Archive: cupboard F: documents relating to the description of the Sarcophagus). It seems likely that the two stele in Soane's collection, this one and Vermeule 31/M447 were acquired together and from the same source.

Literature

Jean Capart, 'Some Egyptian Antiquities in the Soane Museum', PSBA (Proceedings of the Society for Biblical Archaeology) 29, 1907, p.311-314.
Paola Davoli, 'Il dossier di Aku', Aegyptica Bononiensia, I, Monografie di SEAP, Series Minor, 2 (1990), pp. 85-104.


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