- Object: The Naukratis stela
Stela of Nectanebo I, carved in black granodiorite. Lunette with representation of a double symmetric scene showing the king making offerings to the goddess Neith: on one side, the king is showed wearing a red crown and bearing a tray with various ritual vases and bread loaves; on the other, he wears a Tcheni-crown composed of two tall ostrich feathers set on sun disc framed by horizontal ram's horns, and, he offers the gold usekh-collar, wide necklace ending with falcon's heads; on both sides, Neith is represented seated on a throne, wearing the red crown, a was-scepter in one hand and an ankh-sign in the other. Scene set up below winged sun with addorsed uraei issuing from the sun disc. Below lunette, hieroglyphic text arranged in fourteen columns.
- Production date
- 380 BC (year 1 of Nectanebo I)
Thickness: 30 - 37 centimetres
Width: 81.00 - 87.50 centimetres
Height: 198 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- The stela, which was a gift from the Prince Hussein Pacha Kamel, was discovered in the middle of the Great Temenos. Hogarth explained in his diary (20 April 1903) that he received information on the location of the discovery of the stela from the Prince: "On return looked at place where the stele was found. Bang in the middle of P[etrie]’s “Great Temenos”! About equidistant from all walls. Several more frag[ment]s of granite still lying there - & it would be worth a dig". Leonard claimed that the stela was found “in the precinct of an otherwise unknown temple dedicated to the goddess Neith” (Leonard 1997, 13), which seems highly doubtful.
On this stela see particularly: PM IV, 50; El Sayed 1982, 417-419, no. 481; Lichtheim 1976; Lichtheim 1980; Yoyotte, J. 1982/83, 131, n. 21; Yoyotte 1993-94, 680-683; De Meulenaere 1983, 361; Bomhard 2012 (detailed study on this stela and its twin stela discovered in Heracleion at the mouth of the Canopic branch); Agut-Labordère 2012, 355-358.
Agut-Labordère D. 2012, ‘Le statut égyptien de Naucratis,’ in V. Dieudonné, C. Feyel, J. Fournier, L. Graslin, F. Kirbilher and G. Vottéro (eds), Entités locales et pouvoir central: la cité dominée dans l'Orient hellénistique, Nancy, 353-73.
Bomhard, A. S. von 2012, The decree of Saïs: the stelae of Thonis- Heracleion and Naukratis. Underwater archaeology of the Canopic Region in Egypt, Oxford.
Leonard, A (ed.) 1997, Ancient Naukratis: Excavations at a Greek Emporion in Egypt, Part I: The excavations at Kom Ge’if (Annual of American Schools of Oriental Research 54).
Lichtheim, M. 1976, ‘The Naucratis Stela Once Again’, in Studies in Honor of G. R. Hughes (Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilisation, 39) Chicago, 139-46.
Lichtheim, M. 1980, Ancient Egyptian Literatur, III, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 86–89.
De Meulenaere, H. 1983, ‘Naukratis’, Lexikon der Ägyptologie IV, col. 360-1.
El-Sayed, R. 1982, La Déesse Neith de Saïs, Bibliothèque d'étude, Cairo.
Yoyotte, J. 1982/83, ‘L’Amon de Naukratis’, Revue d’Égyptologie 34, 129–36.
Yoyotte, J. 1993/94, ‘Les contacts entre Égyptiens et Grecs, viie-iie siècles avant J.-C. : Naucratis, ville égyptienne, (1992–1993, 1993–1994)’, Annuaire du Collège de France, 679–92.
- Not on display
- Acquisition notes
- Gift from Prince Hussein Pacha Kamel, uncle of the khedive, in 1899
- Additional IDs
Miscellaneous number: JE34002 (Accession Number)
Miscellaneous number: SR5/9013