11 | Sobekten’s stela

Family was an important part of ancient Egyptian communities.

Your relatives could determine your status and social ties.

Kings usually favoured particular family lines because of their high social status, bestowing important roles, like that of mayor, to individuals from one generation to the next.

To ensure that status and social relations were perpetuated in the realm of the dead, the ancient Egyptians represented members of their household on their monuments, especially those dedicated in cemeteries and temples.

This stela is one such example. It was likely set up at the site of Abydos, north of Thebes.

Abydos, ancient Abdju, was a sacred cemetery believed to be the burial place of Osiris.

Thousands of pilgrims visited and some left behind stelae as a way of immortalising their presence at the burial site of the god of the underworld.

This stela’s upper rows of hieroglyphs open with a prayer.

The first 4 signs you see to your right in the upper 2 rows are among the most common.

They read ‘the offering which the king gives’ and here, the prayer is for an offering that the king gives alongside the god Wepwawet, who led the deceased through the paths of the underworld.

How can we spot who commissioned this stela?

Based on ancient Egyptian’s use of scale, we can infer it is the largest person portrayed.

So, he is the one at the top, seated at a table laden with offerings, all for himself.

You can see an ox head and leg, conical loaves of cake and a vegetable.

The hieroglyphs surrounding the table provide the individual’s name: he is Sobekten, ‘chamberlain’ and ‘overseer of Lower Egypt’.

Sobekten included the members of his household on the stela.

By doing so, he guaranteed the survival of their memory and their reunion in the afterlife.

Beneath him, you can see his parents at either side of a slightly smaller table with offerings of cakes, vegetables, a duck and an ox head.

His mother Hathor smells a lotus flower. Facing her is his father Khety, who carries a staff and sceptre.

The third figure is Sobekten’s brother, Djefaihapi, shown in a long skirt and short wig, his positioning with the parents likely reflecting his seniority in the family.

And, at the very bottom, you can see 3 kneeling figures, each with their own offering table.

The 2 women are Sobekten’s sisters, Tjeru and Khety-Aat, while the bearded person with the much larger offering table is identified as ‘the revered one’ Snoferu.

Although we don’t know how Snoferu was related to Sobekten, he may have been an important member of the high official’s household or a friend or colleague.

Not only was he included on the stela, but he was also provided with quite a sizable portion of offerings as well.