Stela of Two Brothers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This beautifully executed round-topped stela, reconstructed from fragments, belongs to a man on the right, whose name is now missing, and his brother, Dedusobek, shown on the left. The owner was clearly a high official to deserve such a high quality monument, and his status is reflected in his long string of titles and epithets that are inscribed on the third to fifth lines: “elite member…, controller of every kilt, privy to the [divine writing?], imy-khenet staff in every robing room…, overseer of the double granary, favorite of the king in every work….” Dedusobek’s administrative titles, inscribed on the left half of the sixth and seventh lines included that of chamberlain. Wearing identical broad collars and calf-length kilts with triangular front panels, the two brothers stand face to face and raise their arms in adoration, presumably of the god Osiris mentioned in the inscription above them. Between the two men is a table laden with a sumptuous amount of food offerings, including a leg of beef, different types of bread, a cucumber, lettuce, green onions, and a fowl. The table stands inside a rack, along with four tall slender jars called heset, which were used for libation. The edge of the stela is decorated with a block border. Although it is now colorless, the whole scene would have been painted.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art