The Sole Royal Ornament, Priestess of Hathor,iAm-Hqt

The Sole Royal Ornament, Priestess of Hathor, iAm-HqtAuthor(s): Danijela StefanovićSource: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 72, No. 2 (October 2013), pp. 209-212Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/671433 .

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[JNES 72 no. 2 (2013)] © 2013 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 022–2968–2013/7202–005 $10.00.

209

The Sole Royal Ornament, Priestess of Hathor, iAm-Hqt

daNijela steFaNović, University of Belgrade*

Among the several ancient Egyptian objects in the Fox Talbot Museum & Lacock Abbey, Lacock (United Kingdom) is the rectangular limestone stela with the inventory number 50029 (fig. 1).1 The object mea-sures 516 mm × 483 mm and is 88 mm thick; its upper right corner and decorated area are slightly damaged. The stela’s provenance and date of acquisition are not recorded. The object is well executed, and the drafts-manship is good.

The decorated part of the object has two regis-ters with images and texts incised in sunken relief. In the upper register, there are five lines of hieroglyphic inscription, which are neat and well carved, reading from right to left. The text continues in one column on the left side of the lower register.

1) Htp di nsw wsir xnty-imntw nb AbDw m st nb(t) ntf 2

* I thank Mr. Roger Watson, curator of the Fox Talbot Mu-seum, Lacock, UK and Mr. John Falconer from The British Li-brary, London for permission to publish the stela Lacock Abbey 50029, and for providing both the photograph and the technical data (courtesy of and copyright Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock and British Library, London).

1 B. Porter and R. L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, vol. VIII/3 Objects of Provenence not Known. Early Dynastic Period to Dynasty XVIII (Oxford, 2007), no. 803-034-349.

2 This seems to be an early instance of the use of the indepen-dent pronoun as a possessive expression in backward extraposition,

2) prt-xrw t Hnqt nt 3 imAxt 4 xr nTr aA Xkrt-nswt watt Hm(t)-nTr HtHr 5 iAm-Hqt 6

as in Late Egyptian xt nbt ink “any thing of mine”; cf. J. Černý and S. I. Groll, A Late Egyptian Grammar (Rome, 1975), 19 (e).

3 For the nt (the feminine form of indirect genitive) in the of-fering formulae, see G. Lapp, Die Opferformel des Alten Reiches: unter Berücksichtigung einiger späterer Formen, Sonderschirft des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 21 (Mainz, 1986), §§68, 160–61, 163, and H. J. Polotsky, Zu den Inschriften der 11. Dynastie, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Altertums-kunde Ägyptens 11 (Leipzig, 1929), §79e. D. B. Spanel points out (“Palaeographic and Epigraphic Distinctions between Texts of the so-called First Intermediate Period and the Early Twelfth Dynasty,” in Studies in Honor of William Kelly Simpson, ed. P. Der Manu-elian [Boston, 1996], vol. II, 768: hereafter Studies Simpson), that the feminine form prt–xrw and the feminine indirect genitive nt are primarily a phenomenon of the late First Intermediate Period and Dynasty XI. Compare with H. O. Willems, Chests of Life: A Study of the Typology and Conceptual Development of Middle King-dom Standard Class Coffins, Mededeelingen en Verhandelingen van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap (Gezels cap) “Ex Oriente Lux” 25 (Leiden, 1988), 65.

4 The abbreviated form of the epithet imAx is a characteristic fea-ture of the of the First Intermediate Period. See K. A. Daoud, Cor-pus of Inscriptions of the Herakleopolitan Period from the Memphite Necropolis: Translation, Commentary and Analyses, British Archae-ological Reports International Series 1459 (London, 2005), 17, 26.

5 The title sequence “priestess of Hathor, sole ornament of the king” was in use in the First Intermediate Period and the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty (D. Franke, review of W. A. Ward, Essays on Feminine Titles of the Middle Kingdom and Related Subjects [Beirut, 1986], in Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 76 [1990]: 229). Both of the titles indicate the high social standing of the beneficiary of



210 F Journal of Near Eastern Studies6

3) Htp di nswt inpw tpy Dw.f imy wt nb tA Dsr qrs(t) nfr(t)7 m

4) iz.s nt(y) m Xrt-nTr m smt imntt n imAxt xr nTr aA iAm-Hqt

5) rn.s nfr Spsi-nswt 8 Hm(t)-nTr HtHr imAxt iAmit 9 xA t xA Hnqt xA kAw xA srw xA rw xA Ss xA mnxt

1) An offering which the king gives, and Osiris Khentyimentu, lord of Abydos, in any places of his.

2) A voice offering of bread and beer, of the re-vered one before the great god, the sole royal ornament, priestess of Hathor, iAm-Hqt.

3) An offering which the king gives, and Anubis who is upon his mountain, he who is in the Embalming Place, lord of the sacred land: a good burial in

4) her tomb which is in the necropolis in the West-ern desert, for the revered one before the great god iAm-Hqt,

5) her good name being Spswt-nswt. The priestess of Hathor, the revered iAmit. The thousands of bread, thousands of beer, thousands of oxen, thousands of sr-geese, thousands of rA-geese, thousands of alabaster, thousands of linen.

The left part of the lower field contains a vertical line of neatly cut and spaced hieroglyphs:

the stela. See R. Leprohon, “The Sixth Dynasty false door of the priestess of Hathor Irti,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 31 (1994): 31–47; M. G. Gillam, The Priestesses of Hathor in the Old Kingdom and the 1st Intermediate Period (Ph.D. diss., Brandeis University, 1981); R. A. Gillam, “Priestesses of Hathor: Their Function, Decline and Disappearance,” Journal of the Amer-ican Research Center in Egypt 32 (1995): 211–37; H. Küllmer, Marktfrauen, Priesterinnen und ‚Edle des Königs‘ Untersuchung über die Position von Frauen in der sozialen Hierarchie des Alten Ägypten bis zum Ende der 1. Zwischenzeit (Ph.D. diss., Hamburg University, 2007), 158–63. Note the standard Middle Kingdom arrangement of the Hathor sign, with the small square placed be-hind the falcon’s head. For earlier attestations, see E. Brovarski, The Inscribed Material of the First Intermediate Period from Naga ed Dêr (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1989), 173, 232. Compare with M. Gillam, Priestesses of Hathor, 131–69; M. Galvin, “Writing of the Hwt–Sign in the Titles of the Cult of Hathor,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 103/2 (1983): 425–30.

6 Not listed by H. Ranke, Die altägyptischen Personennamen I–III (Glückstadt, 1935): hereafter, PN.

7 Cf. W. Barta, Aufbau und Bedeutung der altägyptischen Opferformel, Ägyptologische Forschungen 36 (Gluckstadt, 1968), 39, Bitte 4b.

8 Not listed by Ranke, PN (cf. PN I 326/20).9 Ibid., I, 6/23.

n imAxt xr nTr aA iAm-Hqt

for the revered one before the great god iAm-Hqt

In addition, the lower left part of the stela displays mirror images of the deceased Xkrt-nswt watt Hm(t)-nTr HtHr iAm-Hqt, wearing a long tight dress with shoulder straps, a short wig decorated with curls,10 and a broad collar. She holds a long spearhead-shaped staff with one hand,11 and extends her other hand open at her side. The female figure at the right, facing left and of almost identical appearance, probably depicts the Hm(t)-nTr HtHr iAmit.

The unnamed male figure represented at the right and facing left wears a short wig exposing his ear, also decorated with curls, a broad collar, and a patterned kilt of late Old Kingdom and early Heracleopolitan type.12 He is shown with arms outstretched in worship or praise. His figure shows red pigment on the face, torso, arms, and legs.

Criteria relevant to dating the stela are not abso-lutely decisive, pointing either to a late First Inter-mediate Period, Eleventh or even very early Twelfth Dynasty date. These criteria include the epigraphy: for example, the offering formula appears without the prospective di.f before prt-xrw; lacks the phrase xt nbt nfrt and n or nt before imAxy;13 extends Osiris’ epi-thet nb AbDw with a variant of m swt.f nbt, ‘in all his places’; introduces the deceased with n imAxy;14 note also the phrase krst nfrt m is.s, a variant of the burial request uncommon before the late First Intermediate Period.15 Neither is the paleography conclusive: note

10 The short wig was probably introduced in the early Sixth Dynasty (N. Cherpion, Mastabas et hypogées d’Ancien Empire. Le problème de la datation [Brussels, 1989], 190, and continued in use during the First Intermediate Period (Brovarski, Inscribed Material, 180–81, 239; ibid., “An Unpublished Stele of the First Interme-diate Period in the Oriental Institute Museum,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 32 [1973]: 453–65).

11 For the spear-head shaped staff and their origin, see A. Has-san, Stocke und Stäbe im pharaonischen Ägypten bis zum Ende des Neuen Reiches, Münchner Ägyptologische Studien 33 (Munich, 1976), 197; H. G. Fischer, “Notes on Sticks and Staves in Ancient Egypt,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 13 (1978): 5–32; Daoud, Corpus of Inscriptions, 122.

12 P. A. Bochi, “Of Lines, Linen, and Language: A Study of a Patterned Textile and its Interweaving with Egyptian Beliefs,” Chronique d’Égypte 71 (1996): 221–30.

13 D. Franke, “The Good Shepherd Antef (Stela British Mu-seum. EA 1628),” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 93 (2007): 172.

14 C. Bennett, “Growth of the Htp–di–nsw formula in the Middle Kingdom,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 27 (1941): 27.

15 Barta, Aufbau und Bedeutung, 39, Bitte 4b.



The sole royal ornament, priestess of Hathor, iAm-Hqt F 211

the orthography of the divine names Osiris and Anubis appears with determinatives and the writing of the divine epithet xnty-imntw;16 that in the arrangement of elements in Htp di nsw formula in line three, the t is shifted towards the right side;17 the use of com-

16 Bennett, “Growth of the Htp–di–nsw formula,” 27–28; h. Satzinger, “Beobachtungen zur Opferformel: Theorie and Praxis,” Lingua Aegyptia 5 (1997): 177–88; D. Franke, “The Middle King-dom Offering Formulas – A Challenge,” Journal of Egyptian Ar-chaeology 89 (2003): 39–57.

17 This feature is well attested on First Intermediate Period stelae from Gebelein and Dendera, although there are as well ex-amples originating from Naga ed-Deir, Thebes and Naqada. See H. G. Fischer, “The Nubian Mercenaries of Gebelein during the First Intermediate Period,” Kush 9 (1961): 48; S. Kubish, “Die Stelen der I. Zweischenzeit aus Gebelein,” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 56 (2000): 249; L. M. Azzam, “An Unpublished Stela in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE

bined determinatives for wt;18 the writing of Anubis on a stand;19 the writing of prt-xrw with elongated bread; the mnxt sign, exhibiting three vertical fringe strands instead of two;20 the vertical arrangement of

88011,” in Realm of the Pharaohs. Essays in Honor of T. Handoussa, ed. Z. Hawass, K. Daoud and S. Abd El-Fattah. Supplément aux ASAE, Cahiers no. 37/1 (Cairo, 2010), 70.

18 H. G. Fischer, Dendera in the Third Millennium B.C. down to the Theban Domination of Upper Egypt (New York, 1968), 84 (15); W. Schenkel, Frühmittelägyptische Studien, Bonner Orientalistische Studien 13 (Bonn, 1962), 40, 119–20; Brovarski, “Unpublished Stele”: 464; N. Kanawati, Akhmim in the Old Kingdom, Part I: Chronology and Administration, The Australian Centre for Egyp-tology: Studies 2 (Sydney, 1992), 132.

19 Fischer, Dendera, 84 (14).20 However, some examples can be assigned to the reign of Sen-

wosret I: M. Mareé, “A sculpture workshop at Abydos from the late Sixteenth or early Seventeenth Dynasty,” in The Second Intermediate

Figure 1—Lacock Abbey 50029 (Courtesy of and © Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock & British Library, London).



212 F Journal of Near Eastern Studies

the aA-sign;21 the form of the in AbDw with straight sides; the form of in the burial request; and the head sign in the word tpy lacking the beard.22

The style and iconography points to the First Inter-mediate Period or Eleventh Dynasty after unification, judging from the solid proportions of the figures, their broad and rounded heads, and facial features display-ing fleshy lips, elongated eyes with cosmetic lines and a pointed nose. Furthermore, the modeling of the facial details, especially the crescent-moon shaped inci-

Period (Thirteenth–Seventeenth Dynasties): Current Research, Fu-ture Prospects, ed. M. Mareé, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 192 (Leuven, 2010), 35, n. 16.

21 Schenkel, Frühmittelägyptische Studien, §4b. However, the horizontal arrangement of the aA-sign within the sequence of the Osiris epithets is already attested at the end of the reign of Men-tuhotep II (J. Allen, “Some Theban Officials of the Early Middle Kingdom,” in Studies Simpson I, 10, n. 43; Franke, “Good Shepherd Antef ”: 167, n. 71.

22 According to H. G. Fischer, in respect to the evidence from Dendera, the beard is usually present in the head sign in objects dated to the Old and Middle Kingdom; very often it is omitted in the Eleventh Dynasty, while it is totally absent during the First Intermediate Period (Fischer, Dendera, 79, no. 3, with the chart in fig. 15).

sion indicating a flesh fold behind the nasal alae, the bee-stung lips, and the large and obliquely positioned ears with pendulous lobes are very characteristic for the artistic style of the late First Intermediate Period and Eleventh Dynasty. This style is particularly well-represented in the reliefs from the tomb of Neferu, chief wife of Nebhepetre Montuhotpe.23

The date of the stela of iAm-Hqt is probably late First Intermediate Period. Apart from the epigraphic and stylistic features quoted above, indicating the date range mentioned, the Lacock Abbey stela shows very close similarities with the stelae Paris, Louvre C 198 and Berlin 7512.24

23 E. Riefstahl, “Two Hairdressers of the Eleventh Dynasty,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 15 (1956): pls. 8–13, 14C; H. G. Fischer, “An Eleventh Dynasty Couple Holding the Sign of Life,” Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 100 (1973): 22–23. See also E. Brovarski, “A Second Style in Egyptian Relief of the Old Kingdom,” in Egypt and Beyond. Studies Presented to Leon-ard H. Lesko, ed. S. E. Thompson and P. Der Manuelian (Brown, 2008), 85–86.

24 C. Ziegler, Catalogue des stèles, peintures et reliefs égyptiens de l’ancien empire et de la premiere periode intermediaire, vers 2686–3040 avant J.-C. (Paris, 1990), no. 33; cf. Brovarski, “Unpublished Stele”: 464–65.



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The Sole Royal Ornament, Priestess of Hathor,iAm-Hqt