El-Amarna - The Boundary Stelae : The Stelae's Description .. Part ( 29 )

This is the last part in El-Amarna . Please Note : The letters A, B, F, J, K, M, N, P, Q, R, S, U, V and X Refers to the boundary stelae .

C. Description of the Stelae

These monuments are of an almost invariable form, of which Plate 26 gives an excellent example . They are rounded at the top, and the sky from which Aten sends his divergent rays on the altar and on the royal pair is correspondingly arched .

The upper part is occupied by a scene showing the King, Queen, and two princesses adoring Aten, the former generally having their arms outstretched from the shoulder, while the princesses carry sistrums . Part of this division, however, is often taken up by the beginning of the inscription, arranged in vertical columns, the rest of it being written on the lower part of the stela in horizontal lines in either direction .

In the scene above, the titulary of the sun, of the royal pair, and of the princesses, is added in columns . There is generally an altar-table of common form, the two or three panels of which are decorated with the five cartouches . The table is piled with jars, meats, birds, vegetables, flowers, and dishes of burning incense, and often has a back like that of a chair at one end, and at the other a kneeling figure holding a dish filled with a cone of food (?) . The altar, or one of the two duplicated royal groups, is often replaced by the columns of text .

The King and Queen are clothed in garments of the usual form . The King usually wears the khepersh head-dress, the Queen the two feathers with horned disc . The bodies are given their most exaggerated forms, and the faces their most repulsive outlines, on these stelae of the early years of the reign . Indeed, these worst distortions are almost limited to stelae, trial-pieces, etc. .

The stelae of the later series, unlike the earlier, are almost invariably flanked on both sides with groups of statuary of a special character . They are formed in the following way . The King and Queen stand side by side in a combined group, the King being on the side nearer the stela ; he is somewhat stouter in build than she, but the forms do not greatly differ . It is, however, only in A and S, where the stone is of good quality, that the statuary is sufficiently well preserved to inform us on points of detail, and here the moulding of the body is exquisitely soft and delicate, despite the exaggerated dimensions of the hips and thighs ( Plates 34, 39, 40, 44 ) . The bodies seem usually to be nude, or nearly so . The King wears either the khepersh or the crown of Lower Egypt, the Queen her flat head-dress or a cap ; but the heads or faces have, in every case, been broken away . The figures always have their arms outstretched either from the shoulder or from the elbow ( generally there is one group of each form ), and each grasps the upper rim of a narrow vertical tablet inscribed with the names of the Aten and the royal pair . As these are joined together and to the statues in a solid mass ( concealing the figures for rather more than half their breadth, and so obviating the need of drapery ), they resemble altars, but really show the King and Queen " upholding the name of Aten " . The tablet is sometimes upright, sometimes leaning outwards at the top, as if to be read the better . The heads and figures are joined to the cliff by a stay of rock .

The statues of the little princesses are always two in number . The girls are nude, and wear an enormous side-lock . They hold one another's hands, and with her free arm Merytaten reaches out to touch her mother . These figures are set on a base, and against an arched back, as if they were a free-standing group ( Plate 44 ) .

Stela A ( Plates 41, 43 ) :- This lies three miles to the south of Tunah el-Gebel, on the face of the western hills . It is 14 feet high and 7 feet 6 inches broad, with eight columns of text and twenty-five horizontal lines . The former are in fair preservation ( Plate 33 ) ; the latter seem to have been systematically battered, but the first six and last six lines and the ends of the rest are fairly legible . The lower lines are rapidly decaying . The writing is from left to right . The upper scene shows vertical lines of text on the left, and on the right the King and Queen adoring Aten behind a table of offerings . Merytaten and Meketaten shake sistrums behind her . The horizontal ram's horns are added to the disc in the Queen's head-dress .

On the south side of the stela are two groups of statuary, one of each model ( Plates 34, 36 ) . On both the figures are draped . The King wears a broad girdle with falling ends, and the clinging drapery of the Queen is delicately indicated on her body and limbs . The fringed upper hem of her robe is seen crossing above and between her breasts, and its folds are gathered together in a knot below them . It is open in front, but a narrow sash knotted on the navel seems to indicate an under-garment . The upper arms and the breast of both figures are adorned with cartouches of the Aten . It is peculiar to A and B that, though only two daughters are shown in statuary, the figure and name of Ankhes-en-pa-aten were added to those of the other two on one side of the north " altar ", showing that she was born before the completion of the work . The names are in the invariable form .

Stela B ( Plate 33 ) :- This lies about two miles to the south of Stela A, but halfway between them a rock face has been cut, which may have been the preparation for another stela . It is more likely that it is only a quarry, perhaps even of Roman date . By the side of it forty-one steps, 7 feet broad, making use of a natural gully, ascend to the top of the low cliff, where signs of surface quarrying are frequent . A few steps lead from the foot of this to the quarried face, which is 14 feet high and 35 feet long .

Stela B is about the same size as the last, and in much the same condition . There are seven or eight vertical columns of inscription, and twenty-seven horizontal lines . Columns 1-4 are nearly illegible and line 27 entirely so, while the whole has been very badly defaced by hammering . The scene above shows the King, the Queen, and two daughters lifting hands in adoration of Aten on either side of the columned text . The figures on the left are almost destroyed . The initial date is also gone . On both sides of the stelae are groups of the royal pair and their two daughters . Three daughters are shown and named on the side of the south " altar " .

Stela F :- According to Professor Flinders Petrie, this stela is " on a low scarp of rock in the middle of a wide bay of desert " south of Gildeh, and is usually buried in sand . The scene is gone, as well as the first five discernible horizontal lines . There are nine more lines, 49 inches long, the last seven being fairly complete . The inscription is so short that it would not even contain the royal oath . I think, therefore, that either there was no upper scene at all and that the remaining forty-one inches under the disc were entirely occupied by inscription, or that the top of the stela is quite gone . The text runs from right to left .

Stela J ( Plate 36 ) :- This is situated high up on the north side of the first ravine entering the hills which rise from the western river-bank, south of the village of Hawata . It lies a few hundred yards to the south of Stela K .

The stela is in great ruin apparently from natural causes, the lower part of the rock here being now a rough cave . The stone was bad to begin with, having to be extensively patched by the engravers with insets which now have fallen out . The eight columns of inscription are in very bad condition, the date being indecipherable . The eight horizontal lines, 75 inches broad, which remain, show many gaps . The scene above is on the right of the columns of text and shows the King, Queen, and two princesses adoring Aten with outstretched arms, behind an offering-table . The text is written from left to right . The cliff is smoothed down on the left of the stela to receive statues ; but, though their place is visible, they have perished .

Stela K ( Plates 29, 30, 37, 38 ) :- This monument is cut in the high cliff to the north of Stela J . It is 70 inches broad, and the horizontal lines, which I reckon to have been eighty in number, measure eleven feet in height . There were, besides, twenty-one vertical columns . This magnificent monument is ruined by natural decay, the lower two-thirds being almost useless . It contains the earlier text, written from left to right . The scene above shows the King adoring the Aten on the right of the vertical columns . Behind him, his wife and his daughter Merytaten shake sistrums ( the Queen's name both above and in front of her is written simply ) . This leaves no room for further figures ; but the border has been erased and, a little space having been smoothed at the side, a tiny figure of Meketaten, accompanied by an attendant, has been rudely inserted, and her name added in a column near her sister's . This might represent a miscalculation by the sculptor, but is probably an addition implying the birth of a second daughter after the scene was executed . There are no statues .

Stela M :- About 18 feet high ( 13 feet of inscription possible ) and 6 feet broad . The stela is almost obliterated, but fragments of the first eleven lines can be read, written from left to right . These belong to the earlier proclamation . The scene seems to have shown King, Queen and possibly one or two daughters adoring Aten to the right of several columns of text . There are no statues . The stela is only a few hundred yards north of K, and lies at the turn of the mountain, just behind a Sheikh's tomb . It is set deep in a hewn recess .

Stela N ( Plates 33, 40 ) :- About halfway along the southern boundary of the plain, just under the summit . It is 82 inches broad and 13 feet high, half of the height being occupied by twenty-six horizontal lines of text reading from left to right . What is left of this is in good condition, but the upper half is largely lost by the falling away or theft of patching-stones . The date is lost . The scene shows two daughters . Mr. Steindorff cleared the lower part in 1898 and found heads of the King and Queen ( replaced in Plate 40 ) .

To right and left of the stela, and sheltered by the overhang of the rock, are combined statues of the King and Queen and of the two princesses . The group on the right hand ( west ) is smaller . The arms of the larger group bend upwards from the elbow . The character of the group of children will best be learnt from the photograph ( Plate 44 ) .

Stela P :- This is the westernmost of four stelae which are set in a straight line ( 59° ) across the great valley which leads southwards from the southeast corner of the plain . This contains two khors, one on the west side of the valley and one on the east . P is placed on the west mountain-side, Q in the west khor, R in the east khor, S on the east mountain-side . Stela P was blown to pieces by gunpowder a few years ago by Copts, who expected, as all Egyptians do, to find that the stela was a door to a hidden treasure-chamber . It was 70 inches broad and 12 feet 6 inches high . Only a fragment with the heads of the Royal pair remains . The King, Queen and two princesses were shown praying to the Aten on either side a central altar-table . On the left the heads of both King and Queen are preserved, but are removed on the right . The King wears the crown of Lower Egypt on the left, that of Upper Egypt on the right ; the Queen wears the plumes . There are groups of the King and Queen and of the two princesses on either side the stela . The Queen's tablet contains the name of Aten and her own, the King's that of Aten and his own . One head of Merytaten remains . The writing is from right to left .

Stela Q :- This stela occupies a commanding position at the top of a spur facing northwards down the western track ( Plates 41 , 42 ) . It is 8 feet high and 52 inches broad, containing twenty-seven horizontal lines of inscription written from right to left, but below line 12 nearly all is lost .

The scene above shows the King and Queen praying and the two princesses shaking sistrums on either side of a central altar . None of the cartouches are injured . There were the usual groups of statues on both sides, the higher tablet being on the right . They are completely smashed, the injuries apparently being contemporary ; and on searching the slope and foot of the hill we can found the remains strewn about, but badly weatherworn . They included (1) the head of the Queen ( or a princess ) in an enveloping wig, almost defaced ; (2) the face of the Queen (?) ; (3) head of the King wearing the crown of the North ; (4) torso and head of a princess, the former well formed and little injured ; (5) many fragments of the tablets .

Stela R ( Plate 42 ) :- This lies on the east slope of the eastern khor, about three-quarters of an hour's walk from the southern tombs . It is 88 inches high and 58 inches broad . The text, which was contained in twenty-nine (?) lines written from right to left, is terribly mutilated, partly by natural decay and loss of patching-stones, and partly through wanton injury . The scene above shows the Royal family worshipping in the usual way on both sides of an altar, near which are stands with lotus-flowers . There are fragments still on the left ( North ) of the stela, showing that there was a group of the King and Queen and another of the princesses on this side .

Stela S ( Plates 26, 39, 40, 44 ) :- This lies a few hundred yards behind R at the foot of the mountain-side . It is 60 inches broad and 100 inches high, and contains four columns and twenty-six lines of inscription written from right to left . The sculptors chanced on a vein of limestone as hard as alabaster, so that the greater part of the monument is marvellously preserved, though spiteful attacks have been made upon it lately . The work in the scene above the inscription is beautifully fine, though the profiles are hideous and the forms of the body outrageous .

The usual groups of statuary are found on both sides of the stela and show admirable modelling . The royal group on the right ( South ) of the stela holds the tablets at shoulder-height ; the others are held with bent arm . Except for a narrow girdle round the loins of the King, both figures are nude . The south figure of the King wears the khepersh (?), that on the North has the crown of the North . The south tablet shows the cartouches of King, Queen and Aten ; that on the north shows those of the King and the Aten only .

Stela U ( Plates 25, 37 ) :- This gigantic monument, measuring 25 feet from top to bottom, occupies almost the entire height of the cliff in a little bay of the eastern mountain-range, just to the north of the mouth of the great ravine in which the Royal tomb lies . It is absolutely impossible of close approach except by rope-ladder from above, and the text is therefore difficult to secure . There are three columns and twenty-four lines of text written from left to right . The scene shows the King and Queen praying with extended arms, and two daughters shaking sistrums .

On each side of the stela a deep recess has been cut in the rock to hold the groups of statuary . On the right ( South ) was a group of the King and Queen with tablets held breast-high and inscribed with fuller eulogies of the King (?) and Queen than usual . The princesses are almost destroyed . On the left the remains show separate statues, more than life-size, of the King and Queen, each holding a narrow tablet shoulder-high against the body . The statues of the daughters are more than infantine in comparative size . A broad road leads to it from the city .

Stela V :- This lies high up on the hills, a little to the south of the narrow gorge passage which pierces them in the midst of the northern tombs, the position being apparently chosen as directly opposite B . Owing to the nature of the rock, nothing now remains but half-a-dozen signs, apparently from line 19 ( South ) . There are faint traces of a road leading to it from the city .

Stela X ( Plates 31, 32 ) :- The most northern on the east side, lies at the point where the track through the defile just mentioned strikes the river again . It is set high up on the shoulder of the mountain, above the ruined tomb of the Lady Zebayda, facing the river ( 225° ) . It contains the proclamation of the fourth year, but is in a state of ruin even more lamentable than that of K, its fellow on the south . The stela is 81 inches broad, and there is more than 12 feet of height above the lowest extant line ( No. 57 ) . It affords room for the full text of eighty lines .

The scene above is only to be made out with difficulty . On the left the King stands in adoration, and with him the Queen and Merytaten (?) . In the centre are twenty-one columns of text, and beyond this there seems to have been an altar heaped with offerings . The writing is from right to left .

D. Previous Work on the Site

Stela A, near Tunah el-Gebel on the West side, was the first to be discovered . It was known already to John Gardner Wilkinson, and probably Robert Hay, who drew it in 1827, learnt of its existence from him . Nestor L'Hôte visited it in 1839 and made rough drawings of it . Mr. Prisse did more, publishing the entire monument . Mr. Lepsius published only the date and names . Mr. Daressy, in 1893, included this text in a collation .

Stela U, being near to the Northern tombs, was discovered by Harris and Gliddon in 1840, sketched by L'Hôte, and copied by Prisse . It is included also in Mr. Daressy's collation .

Stela S, was found and copied by De Brynestyn, Prisse's companion, and published by the latter . Mr. Daressy published a fine photograph and printed the text .

Stela K, was published by Lepsius, as also the upper part of Stela N .

Stela Q, was first found, perhaps, by Mr. Newberry .

Stelae B, F, J, P, M, R, V were the reward of Prof. Petrie's indefatigable scrutiny of the whole district in 1892 . R is included also in Mr. Daressy's collation .

Stela X, the farthest to the north yet discovered on the east bank, was shown by an Arab in 1901 . Mr. Breasted has made use of it for his recent work .

Steindorff, Borchardt and Grünau visited the eastern stelae in 1898, copied the text of eight of them, securing excellent photographs, and made excavations at North .

E. Plates

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