Votive stele of the musician Isis
| Votive stele of the musician Isis | |
|---|---|
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| material | limestone |
| Dimensions | H. 14.8 cm; W. 10.8 cm; T. 2.7 cm; |
| origin | Pi-Ramesse |
| time | New Kingdom , 19th Dynasty |
| place | Hildesheim , Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum , PM 380 |
In the Egyptian collection of the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim there are numerous steles , which are known as "Horbeit Steles". This also includes the small votive stele of the musician (schemait) Isis . It comes from the New Kingdom , 19th dynasty , the reign of Ramses II. (Approx. 1303-1213 BC). This type of stelae was offered by private individuals from almost all strata of the population to various deities as a gift, especially on the colossal statues of Ramses II, which were placed at the temple entrances. These statues have their own names and were seen as manifestations of deities, such as the god of war Month .
Site and history of the object
Between 1905 and 1911 Wilhelm Pelizaeus acquired a total of 64 steles from various art dealers in Cairo , which stated that they were found as "Tell Horbeit", the cult site of the god Hor-meti in the eastern delta. Today it is assumed, however, that most of these stelae come from Pi-Ramesse , the residence of the Ramessids (19th and 20th dynasties) in the region of the present-day village of Qantir . Labib Habachi identified a total of 76 such steles, which probably belonged to a find complex and are now kept in various museums. Some of the steles acquired by Wilhelm Pelizaeus belonged to a donation to his hometown Hildesheim in 1907. Until the opening of the museum in Hildesheim in 1911, he gave other, similar steles, including the Isis stele. This small stele is one of the numerous archaeological documents that express either the personal piety of the middle and upper classes of society, or the veneration and special loyalty to the king ( Pharaoh ).
Description and state of preservation
The limestone stele is 14.8 cm high, 10.8 cm wide and 2.7 cm deep. It is made in sunk relief . The left half of the picture shows a walking statue of Ramses II, facing to the right, with a base block and back pillar. The king's regalia is traditional and consists of the white (Upper Egyptian) crown , the Chebesut ceremonial beard and the Shendjut royal apron. The representation of the king's figure with base and back pillar shows that it is really a statue of the ruler. Opposite him stands the musician Isis with her left hand raised in admiration. With her right, likewise raised, she swings a sistrum . The rustling metallic sound of this cult instrument should have a calming effect. A small sacrificial stand with a Nemset libation vessel and a lotus flower is inserted between Isis and the king's statue . Its representation is proportionally larger than that of the king, but this is offset by the base block and the high crown of the statue representation. Isis wears a long, tight-fitting dress. Her wide, transparent overgarment is knotted across the chest. On her long, three-part wig, she wears a lotus flower with a long stem, axially above the head, that looks as if it had been stuck through the ointment cone . There is a hieroglyphic inscription above the two figures . Inside a cartouche is a shortened variant of the well-known name of one of the colossal statues of Ramses II from Pi-Ramesse: "User-maat-Re setep-en-Re (is) Month- (in the two countries)". The title of Isis shows her as “Musician of the Month in the Two Countries”. Apart from minor bumps and the no longer existing, but once brightly colored painting, the stele is well preserved.
Individual evidence
- ^ Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim: Inventory number PM 380
literature
- Albert Ippel , Günther Roeder : The monuments of the Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim. Curtius, Berlin 1921, p. 95.
- Hans Kayser : The Egyptian antiquities in the Roemer-Pelizaeus-Museum in Hildesheim. Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1973, ISBN 3-8067-8002-1 , p. 61 and Fig. 55.
- Wilfried Seipel (Ed.): 438 Votive stele of Isis. In: Egypt. Gods, graves and the arts. 4000 Years of Belief in the Beyond, Volume 1. (= Catalogs of the Upper Austrian State Museum , Volume No. 22). Landesmuseum, Linz 1989, ISBN 3-900746-14-1 , p. 268.
- Katja Lembke , Bettina Schmitz (Ed.): 063 Stele of Isis, singer of the "Month in the Two Countries". In: Beauty in Ancient Egypt - Longing for Perfection. Hildesheim and Gebrüder Gerstenberg, ISBN 3-8067-8559-7 , catalog Beauty in Form and Measure, pp. 178-179 (book accompanying the exhibition Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim from November 25, 2006 to July 1, 2007 and Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe from July 28, 207 to January 27, 2008).
- Karl Martin: Votive stele of the singer Isis : In: Bettina Schmitz (catalog editorship ): Nofret- The beautiful, woman in ancient Egypt, truth and reality. Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim 1985 and von Zabern, ISBN 3-8053-0858-2 (museum edition), p. 116, no. 153. (Book accompanying the exhibition Roemer- und Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim July 15, 1985 - November 4 1985).
- Labib Habachi: Features of the deification of Ramesses II (= treatises of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, Egyptological series. 5). Glückstadt 1969, p. 41.