The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Stele of the High Priest of Ptah, Shedsunefertem
945–924 BCE
(1069–715 BCE), Dynasty 22, reign of Shosheng I (943–922 BCE)
Overall: 86.8 x 78.5 cm (34 3/16 x 30 7/8 in.)
Location: 107 Egyptian
Description
This stele of Shedsunefertem, the High Priest of Ptah, is rich in religious symbolism. In the center of the top register is a disk and crescent, originally gilded. At either side a baboon raises its arms in adoration. The Egyptians believed that the jabbering of the baboons at dawn was a hymn of praise to the sun god Ra in a secret language only the king understood. It begins, "Praising Ra when he shines on the horizon." Directly below in the middle register a child god is seated on a lotus flower. In Egyptian mythology the sun arose out of the primeval waters at the dawn of creation in a lotus flower. Winged figures of Maat, goddess of Truth, stand protectively at either side. The damaged figure of the high priest himself, wearing the panther skin and jackal-collar of his office, appears at the far right, worshipping the god Ptah, whose consort, the lioness-headed goddess Sekhmet, appears on the far left. The figures in the bottom register are colleagues who appear here as dependents under the powerful high priest's protection.- Purchased from Khawam Brothers, Cairo, by Lucy Olcott Perkins through Henry W. Kent, April 23, 1913, with 1914.662, 1914.542, and 1914.663
- Williams, Caroline Ransom. "Stela of a High-Priest of Memphis." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 8/9 (1918): 67-69. Reproduced: Front Matter; Mentioned: pp. 67-69 www.jstor.orgBerman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Reproduced: p. 258; Mentioned: p. 258-260Jurman, Claus. Memphis in der Dritten Zwischenzeit: eine studie zur (selbst-) Repräsentation von eliten in der 21. und 22. Dynastie. 2020. Reproduced; Tafel 114-116, D-060
- {{cite web|title=Stele of the High Priest of Ptah, Shedsunefertem|url=false|author=|year=945–924 BCE|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1914.669