Naga-ed-Deir to Thebes to Abydos: The Rise and Spread

of the Couple Standing before Offerings

Pose on FIP and MK Offering Stelae
Jacqueline E. Jay
Abstract
The couple standing before offerings pose first appeared at Naga-ed-Deir in the First Intermediate
Period and gradually rose in popularity at that site. Its appearance at Thebes in the late Eleventh
Dynasty coincided with reunification; similarly, it first occurred at Abydos at the beginning of the
Twelfth Dynasty, as Amenemhet I was consolidating his control of the north. As the Twelfth Dynasty
progressed, however, stelae production became more and more standardized, and the pose ultimately
dropped out of use. Thus, as this paper will show, tracing the rise and spread of the couple standing
before offerings pose enables us to elucidate patterns of communication between artists and workshops
at different sites under different political circumstances.

The depiction of the deceased seated before a funerary meal is a central element of ancient Egyptian
private funerary iconography from the earliest historic period onward, with the oldest attested stelae
bearing this scene dating to the Archaic Period.1 These early stelae come from Sakkara and Helwan
and are rectangular in shape. In contrast, early stelae from Abydos tend to be tall and round-topped
and bear only the deceaseds name rather than the full offering table scene, a pattern of distribution
which suggests the existence of regional styles.2 Around the end of the Archaic Period, the tradition
of round-topped stelae died out at Abydos, replaced by rectangular stelae, perhaps as a result of the
spreading influence of the Memphite region as the state became increasingly centralized.3 At roughly
the same time, the more elaborate false door stela appeared in the Memphite region, with examples
from Sakkara and Meidum dating to the end of Dynasty 3 and beginning of Dynasty 4.4 Although
1

Scharff suggests that the Sakkara stela of Sehenefer is the oldest, dating it to the end of Dynasty 1. A. Scharff, Eine archaische
Grabplatte des Berliner Museums und die Entwicklung der Grabplatten im frhen Alten Reich, in Fs Griffith, 34657; P. Der Manuelian, Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis, PPYE 7 (New Haven-Philadelphia, 2003), 135. The site of Helwan has produced numerous
examples from Dynasties 2 and 3. Z. Saad, Ceiling Stelae in the Second Dynasty Tombs from the Excavations at Helwan, ASAE Supplment 21 (Cairo, 1957); T. Wilkinson, A Re-examination of the Early Dynastic Necropolis at Helwan, MDAIK 52 (1996), 33754.
2 These trends are not exclusive, however, for there are early stelae from Abydos which are rectangular in shape, while the
two stelae erected before Sneferus pyramid at Meidum are round-topped. Thus, a more complex network of factors than pure
geography probably determined stelae shape. For example, Vandier, Manuel I, 742 and 747, links differences in shape to the type
of scene placed upon an individual stela (the rectangular shape being more suited to the offering table scene), and to whether a
stela was fixed or free-standing. The Bankfield stela, purchased at Thebes, is a particularly notable exception to the general trend,
for although it is round-topped, it bears a funerary meal scene. Numerous explanations have been proposed to explain its mix
of elements; see Der Manuelian, Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis, 13336, for a summary.
3 Or, as Vandier, Manuel I, 74748; 75152 suggests, the change in stela shape at Abydos may reflect a shift at that site from
free-standing stelae to stelae embedded in the tomb wall. As he notes, the shape of Abydene stelae changes, but the typical Memphite funerary meal scene is not adopted at Abydos.
4 Der Manuelian, Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis, 135.

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JARCE 46 (2010)

the false door stela was larger and more elaborate than the slab stela, it retained the depiction of the
owner seated before a table of offerings as a central feature placed directly above the doorway; in addition, standing figures of the owner and others were carved on the door jambs.5 Wealthy provincial
elite soon began to mimic the false door stelae of the Memphite region at numerous sites throughout
Upper Egypt, including the key element of a seated figure before the funerary meal.6
On provincial stelae of the First Intermediate Period, however, figures often stand rather than sit
before the offering table; in general during this period, the decline of centralized authority and the
continued rise of provincial cemeteries coincided with the appearance of a much more heterogeneous corpus of offering stelae, along with a decrease in the size of the funerary assemblage. On the
whole, stelae production of the First Intermediate Period reversed the evolutionary trajectory of the
Old Kingdom. While tomb decoration had become progressively more complex as the Old Kingdom
progressed, with the simple slab stela developing into the larger false door, in the First Intermediate
Period stela size shrank to the proportions of the original slab stela. Despite the smaller size, however,
an attempt was made to retain the essential elements of the false door stela, leading to the crowding,
and mixing and matching, of many diverse elements. Within the varied group of First Intermediate
Period stelae, certain clear subgroupings do appear, based on style, provenance, and chronology, as
Edward Brovarskis analysis of the stelae of Naga-ed-Deir demonstrates.7 Using Brovarskis stylistic and
chronological groups as a starting point, it is possible to trace the rise in popularity of one particular
motif at one particular site: the couple standing before offerings pose at Naga-ed-Deir. Stelae displaying this pose form a particularly intriguing category, both for their clear break with earlier traditions
and for their gradual geographic spread over time.
The reunification of Egypt at the end of the First Intermediate Period caused significant changes
in the production of monumental art. Channels of communication between provincial artisans and
craftsmen in the newly founded royal workshops at Thebes seem to have been opened, leading to a
higher degree of artistic standardization throughout the country; during this period, stelae displaying
features characteristic of Naga-ed-Deir begin to appear elsewhere. When the capital moved north to
Itj-tawy at the end of the reign of Amenemhet I, the center of stelae use also moved north, with the
rising practice of erecting memorial chapels at Abydos resulting in a particularly rich corpus of Middle
Kingdom stelae. Early Dynasty 12 stelae from Abydos continue to depict couples standing before offerings, continuing for a time an important First Intermediate Period tradition. Gradually, however, this
arrangement of elements dropped out of use.
Tracing the rise and spread of the couple standing before offerings pose enables us to elucidate
patterns of communication between artists and workshops at different sites under different political
circumstances. As has often been shown, there are close connections between politics and artistic
production, with the core having a profound effect on the periphery, particularly at times of intense
centralization; as this paper will demonstrate, however, there are also times when the periphery can
have a significant effect on artistic production at the core.

5 As discussed more fully in the conclusion, the Giza funerary monuments of the time of Khufu mark a step away from this
developmental trajectory, for in his reign the false door is abandoned in lieu of a simpler slab stela.
6 See, for example, false door stelae excavated by Petrie at Dendera and the false door of Weni from Abydos. W. Flinders
Petrie, Dendereh, Memoir EES 17 (London-Boston, MA., 1898), pls. 1 and 9; J. Richards, Text and Context in late Old Kingdom
Egypt: The Archaeology and Historiography or Weni the Elder, JARCE 39 (2002), 75102, figs. 3 and 18.
7 Naga-ed-Deir is part of a six kilometer stretch of cemeteries on the east bank of the Nile which acted as the primary burial
ground of the Thinite nome from the Predynastic through to the Middle Kingdom, when the city of This, opposite Naga-ed-Deir,
was replaced in importance by Abydos. The Naga-ed-Deir corpus of stelae is currently spread throughout museums worldwide
and comes primarily from excavations of George Reisner carried out between 1901 and 1924.

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The Appearance of the Couple Standing before Offerings Pose at Naga-ed-Deir

Although provincial cemeteries grew in importance as the centralized government of the Old Kingdom collapsed at the end of Dynasty 6, the provincial elite of the First Intermediate Period clearly
had access to fewer resources than did the Memphite officials of the Old Kingdom, for their funerary monuments are considerably less elaborate. At Dendera, the mastabas of the late Old Kingdom
and early First Intermediate Period devolved into much smaller structures, with many tombs having
no super-structure at all; in these cases, Petrie notes that the stele is put in the pit at the mouth of
the chamber.8 At sites dominated by rock-cut tombs, like Naga-ed-Deir, most tombs possessed only a
small, undecorated rock-cut chapel, with a simple slab stela marking the offering place.9
During the First Intermediate Period, grave goods were certainly of poorer quality, but it must also
be noted that resources were more evenly divided, with more people having access to them. 10 This
trend may be seen clearly in the large corpora of First Intermediate Period stelae discovered at sites
like Dendera, Nagada, Gebelein, Thebes, and, most significant for our purposes, Naga-ed-Deir. The
stelae from these sites tend to share a number of key elements: an offering formula inscribed across
the top and/or along the right-hand side; the owner on the left side, facing right, often accompanied by
his wife; and food offerings before them, sometimes carried by servants. Although the owner and his
wife appear seated on some monuments, they are more commonly depicted standing.
The densely packed stelae characteristic of the First Intermediate Period probably represent a practical means of adapting to the broader distribution of available resources resulting from the collapse
of the Old Kingdom. Because these stelae are the only decorated elements in the tomb, it seems to
have been imperative that they depict all of the essential details.11 Thus, the rise in popularity of the
standing figure in Upper Egypt may be explained as a simple matter of space conservation: a standing
figure takes up less space than a seated one. Seated figures do, however, continue to appear as well,
suggesting that the shift was a matter of expediency rather than symbolism. Although the prominence
given to the standing pose on First Intermediate Period stelae is innovative, the pose itself has precedent in the Old Kingdom, in the figures that commonly stand on the jambs and architraves of Old
Kingdom false door stelae. Vandier sees the appearance of standing figures before an offering table
as a local tradition developed in Upper Egypt, and Fischer suggests that Upper Egyptian craftsmen of
the late Old Kingdom derived the standing figure pose from Old Kingdom false doors produced in the
Memphite region.12
Despite the many common features linking together stelae produced at different sites, small
diagnostic details distinguish groups of stelae, suggesting that provincial workshops were developing
independently at each site. On the stelae produced at Gebelein, for example, artists developed ways to
distinguish Egyptians from Nubians.13 In general, stelae from Gebelein, and from Dendera, Nagada,
and Thebes as well, tend to be short and broad. In contrast, the stelae from Naga-ed-Deir are more
8Petrie,

Dendereh, 19.
G. Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt (Cambridge, MA, 1997), 83.
10 For an overview of this phenomenon, see S. Seidlmayer, The First Intermediate Period (c. 21602055 bc), in I. Shaw, ed.,
The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2000), 11847.
11 This phenomenon was characteristic of contemporary Saqqara burials as well, for, as Smith notes, in Saqqara mastabas the
repertory of scenes is selectively abbreviated to the essentials. W. Smith, Art and Architecture, 151.
12Vandier, Manuel II, 454; H. Fischer, Dendera, 5961.
13 H. Fischer, The Nubian Mercenaries of Gebelein during the First Intermediate Period, Kush 9 (1961), 4480. B. Kemps
discussion, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, 2nd ed. (London, 2006), 27, fig. 6, of one of these stelae (MFA 03.1848) highlights the Nubian features of the owner: he wears a loincloth with long sash, and, to Kemp, dots around the edge of his hair
distinguish it as tightly curled. In contrast, when monuments from Gebelein depict Egyptians, they typically wear a Sndyt kilt, a
feature which Brovarski views as an intentional means to distinguish Egyptians from Nubians. E. Brovarski, Two Monuments of
the First Intermediate Period from the Theban Nome, in Fs Hughes, 38.
9

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JARCE 46 (2010)

commonly tall and narrow, a characteristic shape which may represent a local tradition also manifested
by the tall and narrow Early Dynastic Period stelae of nearby Abydos. Some Naga-ed-Deir stelae include
an offering table; others, however, have none, with the offerings seeming to float in the air before the
owner instead. According to Vandier, the depiction of a couple standing before floating offerings is
another feature characteristic of Naga-ed-Deir, being for the most part restricted to that site and the
surrounding vicinities.14
Separate workshops also seem to have been operative within individual sites, as Edward Brovarskis
analyses of distinct groups of Naga-ed-Deir stelae show. Brovarski defines a stela group as a homogenous class of steles defined by specific iconographic, paleographic, and philological criteria produced
by one artist or workshop, while Rita Freed, who has studied stelae workshops of Dynasties 11 and 12,
defines a workshop as a group of artisans working cooperatively in the same place over a period of
time and observing a common model.15 Using stylistic criteria, Brovarski has divided the Naga-ed-Deir
stelae into groups for which he has developed a relative chronology.16
Although modern historians typically view the death of Pepi II as the event separating the Old
Kingdom from the First Intermediate Period, the artistic style of the Old Kingdom Memphite court
continued to exert a strong influence into the beginning of the First Intermediate Period, during
Manethos ephemeral Seventh and Eighth Dynasties. This period, sometimes called the late Memphite
period, seems to have lasted for only two to three generations, perhaps forty to fifty years.17 Memphite
styles clearly influenced a number of high quality Naga-ed-Deir tombs of the late Memphite period.18
For example, standard Old Kingdom style offering table scenes, in which the deceased sits before a
tall pedestal table with half-loaves of bread, appear frequently. Although standing couples are present
on poorer quality monuments of this period (e.g., on the stela of Idw-i19), couples do not yet appear
standing before offerings.
The end of the late Memphite period and the rise of the Heracleopolitan House of Khety, equivalent to Manethos Ninth Dynasty, coincided with a significant shift in artistic patterns at the site of
Naga-ed-Deir for, although stelae of the Ninth Dynasty vary greatly in quality, style, and method of
production, they all display a degeneration of the offering table scene commonly found on slab stelae
of the Old Kingdom. The size of the offering table decreases, the half-loaves are replaced by other
offerings, and the owner and his wife frequently stand before the table rather than sit.20 Critically, the
appearance of the standing couple before offerings pose at Naga-ed-Deir in the Ninth Dynasty coincided with a political break with Memphis. At this period, local workshops were forced to develop their
own innovative ways to deal with the reduced circumstances of their patrons.
14 There are, of course, exceptions to the general trends. Examples of short and broad stelae have been discovered at Naga-edDeir. And, there are stelae from other sites which are highly reminiscent of those from Naga-ed-Deir. See, for example, UPMAA
2966693, published by D. Silverman, A Reference to Warfare at Dendereh, Prior to the Unification of Egypt in the Eleventh
Dynasty, in S. Thompson and P. Der Manuelian, eds., Egypt and Beyond: Essays Presented to Leonard H. Lesko (Providence, 2008),
31931. A stela in the Turin Museum from Gebelein also displays seemingly clear Naga-ed-Deir features: it is tall and narrow in
shape, with a banded border, and depicts a couple standing before a small offering table. See A. Roccati, Museo Egizio Torino
(Rome, 1988), 2930. Significantly, despite the decline of centralized authority at this time, individual sites were by no means
completely isolated from one another. For example, Brovarksi suggests that his Blue and Anomalous groups of Dynasty 9 were
produced by craftsmen who also produced monuments discovered at Dendera. E. Brovarski, The Inscribed Material of the First
Intermediate Period from Naga-ed-Dr (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1989), 18586.
15 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 11; R. Freed, Stela Workshops of Early Dynasty 12, in P. Der Manuelian,
ed., Studies in Honor of William Kelly Simpson (Boston, 1996), 297.
16 Admittedly, critiques can be made of some of his conclusions; see below for specific examples.
17Fischer, Dendera, 11328, 187; Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 965.
18 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 171.
19Cairo CG 1607; Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 113.
20 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 18283.

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Brovarski assigns four distinct stelae groups to the Ninth Dynasty, called the Red, Blue, Polychrome,
and Green groups according to the coloration of their hieroglyphs.21 He suggests that these groups
were consecutive rather than concurrent, supporting this hypothesis with the observation that the tombs
of four successive nomarchs of the region each display the characteristics of a different group.22 Based
upon the assumption that each of these nomarchs had a normal lifespan and reign length, Brovarski
proposes eighty years for the Ninth Dynasty (twenty years per generation); admittedly, this chronology
is not universally accepted, with many scholars arguing for a much shorter period of time.23
Many of the owners of these stelae bear only standard, generic titles: smr waty, xtmty bity, Hry-Xbt, HAtya, iry-pat. Other titles, however, are more specific and speak to the Thinite provenance of the corpus;
see, for example, the stela of ^mA, who is called imy-r xA m ^ayt m kmt nb=f InHrt, overseer of the herds
in Shayt, namely the black cattle of his lord Onuris (Onuris being the city god of This).24 Significant
from a historical perspective is the fact that stelae of the Green Group show a marked increase in the
title imy-r mSa, presumably reflecting increasing degrees of conflict as the First Intermediate Period
progressed.25
The latter groups contain far more examples of the standing couple before offerings pose, from 5%
and 13% in the earlier Red and Blue groups to 81% and 64% in the later Polychrome and Green groups.
As a result, I would suggest that these numbers support Brovarskis relative chronology of the groups.
Group Name

Total #

Red

21

Blue
Polychrome
Green

# with a standing couple

% with a standing couple

5%

15

13%

26

21

81%

14

64%

The stelae of the first Ninth Dynasty group, the Red Group, bridge the transition between the style
of the Old Kingdom and the new style that developed during the Heracleopolitan period. They display
stylistic and paleographic features that suggest a residual influence of the artistic style of the Memphite
court; for example, Brovarski notes that their inscriptions bear several similarities to the later Coptos
decrees.26 The stelae are, however, of poor quality, indicating that the elite of Naga-ed-Deir no longer
had access to the artistic workshops and monetary resources of the Memphite court. At least twentyone stelae are assigned to the Red Group, of which only one depicts a couple standing before offerings (Dunham 1227); two other examples from this group depict a seated couple (Dunham 3428 and
21 J.

Settgast, Materialien zur Ersten Zwischenzeit I , MDAIK 19 (1963), 715, initially named the Red, Polychrome, and
Green groups. H. Fischer, A Daughter of the Overlords of Upper Egypt in the First Intermediate Period, JAOS 76 (1956), 101,
identified the Blue Group, and Brovarksi, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 10, gave it this name.
22 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 1213.
23 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 15ff., cites a number of these arguments. More recently, I. Shaw, ed.,
The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2000), 480, gives the Ninth Dynasty only thirty-five years, while J. von Beckerath,
Chronologie des pharaonischen gypten: Die Zeitbestimmung der gyptischen Geschichte von der Vorzeit bis 332 v. Chr., MS 46 (Mainz
am Rhein, 1997), 144, continues to maintain a 100150 year length for the Ninth and Tenth Dynasties combined in contrast to
Brovarskis 192 years. Brovarskis chronology is, however, accepted by D. Lorton, The Internal History of the Heracleopolitan
Period, DE 8 (1987), 2128.
24 H. Fischer, Three Stelae from Naga-ed-Deir, in Fs Dunham, 5861; Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr,
64344.
25 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 974.
26 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 514; 54142.
27 D. Dunham, Naga-ed-Dr Stelae of the First Intermediate Period (Boston-Oxford, 1937), 2426, pl. 7/2.
28Dunham, Naga-ed-Dr Stelae, 4647.

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N109129). On Dunham 12, offerings float before the mans face and a small offering table piled with
food is tucked under his kilt; this kind of pedestal table occurs on other stelae of this group as well.30
This single Red Group example of a couple standing before offerings represents the beginnings of a
trend which will continue to grow at Naga-ed-Deir.
Brovarski places the Blue Group immediately after the Red Group in his sequence. While the Red
Group gives the impression of having been hastily or sketchily executed, members of the latter Ninth
Dynasty groups, beginning with the Blue Group, tend to be far better in quality, perhaps indicating an
upswing in prosperity at the site. The stelae of the group do, however, range in quality, leading Brovarski to suggest that they were produced by several craftsmen of varying degrees of competency.31 The
stelae of the Blue Group mix raised and sunk relief, a combination which also occurs on roughly contemporaneous monuments from Dendera, presenting the possibility that both groups were the work
of artists trained in the same style. Since such bold relief also occurs on late Sixth Dynasty Memphite
monuments, Brovarksi suggests that it may have been imported from the capital at Heracleopolis.32
On most Blue Group stelae, the background behind the figures is completely cut away, with the couple
standing within the resulting frame and the main inscription carved in sunk relief on a level higher
than that of the raised figures. This technique also appears at Thebes, notably on the limestone stela
of king Wahankh Intef II from his funerary complex.33
There are only two stelae among the fifteen of the Blue Group that display husband and wife
together: the stela of RwD-aHAw and his wife Ippi (fig. 1)34 and the stela of _Sri and his wife IDni.35
There are many physical similarities between the two couples, all of whom have bulky bodies with little
musculature, large eyes, and wings at the nose, features characteristic of the First Intermediate Period
style of Upper Egypt.36 The stela of RwD-aHAw and his wife Ippi is short and broad, with the inscription
taking up most of the right side of the stelae. Tightly packed offerings on a small table appear below
the offering formula, reaching only to the height of the owners knee. In contrast, the stela of _Sri and
IDni is more characteristic of Naga-ed-Deir stelae, being tall and narrow. The inscription is placed over
the heads of the couple, and a tall column of loose offerings reaches the owners elbow to his right.
Such variations in the placement of offerings mark a shift away from the standard organization of Old
Kingdom Memphite offering stelae.37
The Polychrome Group is the largest group identified among the Naga-ed-Deir stelae, with twenty-six
members.38 Chronologically, the Polychrome Group follows the Blue Group, and seems to be roughly
contemporaneous with the well-known tomb of Ankhtifi of Moalla. The stelae of the Polychrome
Group are carved in deep sunk relief with incised details, and the majority of examples are framed
by a banded border.39 The male owner is pictured alone on only three stelae, and a woman is the sole

29

Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 566.

Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 537.
31 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 180; 581.
32 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 18586.
33Robins, Art of Ancient Egypt, 85, fig. 83.
34 Budapest 60.19; E. Varga, La stele de RwD-aHAw et dIppi, Bulletin du Muse hongrois des beaus-arts 22 (1963), 37; Brovarski,
Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 59596.
35 Denman Collection; Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 59960, fig. 133.
36 For a discussion of these features on Budapest 60.19, see Varga, La stele de RwD-aHAw et dIppi, 7.
37 Based on similar criteria, E. Brovarski, Akhmim in the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period, in Fs Mokhtar, 123,
dates a stelae group from Akhmim to the Ninth Dynasty, for this group contains the unorthodox arrangement of a woman
standing, rather than seated, before an offering table with conventional loaves. This group does not, however, include the motif
of a couple standing before offerings.
38 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 601, table 4.
39 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 195.
30

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Fig.1. Budapest 60.19. Blue Group stela of RwD-aHAw and his wife Ippi. Photograph courtesy of Szpmvszeti Mzeum,
Budapest.

owner on only one.40 On one stela, the owners son stands behind him; in all other cases, the husband
is accompanied by his wife, and the couple always stands, never sits. Despite the high quality of the
members of the Polychrome Group, the central offering table with bread loaves is abandoned in favor
of a small rectangular table bearing beer jars, or no table at all.41 Offerings cluster in the area around
the owners elbow, with additional offerings sometimes being added around his kilt, as on the Toledo
stela of Iy and &it (TMA 1925.250, fig. 2). Offerings on these stelae are loosely packed and do not reach
the bottom register line. Often, small offering bearers appear before the owners face as well. The
sharp increase in the popularity of the couple standing before offerings pose exhibited by the Polychrome Group suggests that the pose met the funerary needs of the Naga-ed-Deir elite, presumably
because it allowed all of the necessary elements (owner, wife, and offerings) to be included economically on a single monument.
The Green Group consists of fourteen extremely similar stelae. Following the higher quality Polychrome Group, the Green Group marks a decline in quality; however, the standing couple pose
remains popular. On nine of the fourteen members of the Green Group, the owner stands with his
40
41

Although Brovarksi states that the owner stands alone on five, by my count there are only four.
Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 200202.

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wife, who tends to place her hand

around the mans shoulder, torso, or
waist. One exceptional stela depicts
the husband and wife standing faceto-face, holding hands.42 Unusually
for stelae groups from Naga-ed-Deir,
short and broad stelae predominate. Tall columns of offerings are
common on Green Group stelae,
typically consisting of a small table
bearing baskets with other types of
offerings hovering above. The offerings are packed more tightly than
on Polychrome Group examples, appearing in a cluster to the right of
the owners staff.43 On two stelae a
mirror floats before the face of the
woman, a phenomenon common
on Naga-ed-Deir stelae following
the Green Group period but rarely
found outside the Thinite nome.44
Significantly, we see the complete
abandonment of the seated pose
in both the Polychrome and Green
groups.45
The closely contemporaneous
rise of the Heracleopolitan Tenth
Dynasty alongside the Theban ElevFig.2. TMA 1925.250. Polychrome Group stela of Iy and &it. Photograph
enth Dynasty marked a significant
courtesy of the Toledo Museum of Art; Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey.
political change whose ramifications
are reflected in monumental art at
Naga-ed-Deir. After Intef II of Thebes moved north and captured the region of Naga-ed-Deir, the area seems to have remained a bone
of contention between the Thebans and the Heracleopolitans. This situation was not resolved until
Nebhepetre Montuhoteps reunification of Egypt several decades later. The stelae from Naga-ed-Deir
dated to this time exhibit a marked decline in quality, presumably reflecting the contemporary political upheaval. Although the stelae of this period are very diverse in style and iconography, Brovarski
identifies six distinct groups in addition to a number of independent stelae.46 We might question
whether such a high number of workshops was really operational in such a short period; perhaps it is
more reasonable to view this stylistic variation as a mark of the decentralization of craft production
42

Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 677.

Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 678.
44 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 222.
45 In addition to the four major groups, Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 71631, assigns sixteen independent stelae to the Ninth Dynasty. Three of these display the standing couple pose: the stela of MAa-xrw in a private collection at
Basel, the stela of ^mA (Cairo JE 43755), and the stela of *ni-Hr-pgA (SF 5102).
46 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 732ff.
43

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and the work of independent artists

rather than of autonomous workshops. The standing couple pose
continues to occur frequently, and
appears in particularly high numbers in Brovarksis Mr-irty=f group
and #w.n=s group.47 Interestingly,
many of the women depicted on
the stelae of these groups are nude,
either completely or above the waist
(see, for example, fig. 3). This feature is unexpected, for elite women
in ancient Egypt were not typically
portrayed in the nude. As Brovarski
notes, however, a bare-breasted Nubian woman does appear on a Ninth
Dynasty stela from Gebelein, and
thus this feature may be a sign of
Nubian influence on stelae production at Naga-ed-Deir.48
Naga-ed-Deir stelae produced in
the period from year 14 of Montuhotep II to his reunification of
Egypt by year 39 continue to reflect the struggle between north
and south. In textual content they
resemble contemporary inscriptions from Lower and Middle Egypt,
Fig.3. MFA 12.1479. Stela of WD-sTi and Mr-irty=f. Photograph courtesy
while in paleography they resemble
of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
inscriptions from Upper Egypt. In
general, these stelae are executed in
extremely poor quality sunk relief and most are without stylistic parallels, suggesting that the system
of workshops had broken down during this time of turmoil, and that craftsmen were now working
independently.49 Supporting this hypothesis are the many unusual features displayed by individual
examples of this very heterogeneous corpus; seemingly, artisans were freed to be even more creative
through the further decentralization of craft production. For example, the following five stelae from
this period combine a standing couple with their own distinctive features:
1. The stela of WAD and MAa-xrw, N 3978.50 On this stela, a mirror floats before the face of the woman,
a characteristic feature of stelae from Naga-ed-Deir from the Green Group onward (see above). In
contrast, the position of her left arm is unexpected, for it passes in front of her husbands shoulder
47

Both groups are named after the owners of diagnostic stelae in each group. There are ten stelae in the Mr-irty=f group and
nine in the #w.n=s group; ten and five respectively display a couple standing before offerings.
48 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 22426.
49 This period yields only one well-defined Naga-ed-Deir stelae group, Settgasts group, which consists of six stelae. Brovarski,
Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 233 and 826.
50 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 234; 87374, fig. 169.

72

2.

3.
4.
5.

JARCE 46 (2010)
rather than behind it.
The stela of RwD-m-obH/Qrr and #wyt, Oriental Institute 16951.51 Here, the arrangement of the
wifes hands and arms is very unusual, for she has her left hand around her husbands left shoulder,
with her right hand grasping her own left wrist.
The stela of anh-imy (?), N 4102.52 The figures on this stela are highly attenuated; the mans arms
hang at his sides and the much smaller woman grasps his elbow.
The stela of @ni and ^dt.it=s, Brussels E. 8244.53 According to Brovarski, the offering table on the
stela is unusual and the wavy snake-scepter held by the man seems to be unique.
Anonymous Stela, CG 1595.54 This stela is divided into two registers, a feature which is unusual for
Naga-ed-Deir at this time. It does, however, prefigure a trend which becomes increasingly popular
in the Middle Kingdom.

Despite many distinctive elements, however, these stelae remain tied to broader trends of the period
and the region, for their figures display the very large eyes common to Upper Egyptian monuments
of the First Intermediate Period.55
Thebes and the Standing Couple Pose
As the First Intermediate Period progressed, Thebes experienced a rise in prominence and influence
which affected monumental art produced both at that site and elsewhere. In the First Intermediate
Period, the pose of the couple standing before offerings also occurs at Thebes, although not in the
same high numbers as at Naga-ed-Deir.56 The stelae from Thebes exhibit their own local variations;
while Naga-ed-Deir stelae are most commonly tall and narrow, Theban stelae tend to be short and
broad. Frequent differences in layout between the two groups can be connected to this difference in
shape. While inscriptions often appear exclusively at the top of the tall, narrow stelae of Naga-ed-Deir,
short and broad stelae from Thebes frequently include a large block of inscription dominating the
right-hand side. On such stelae, offerings are often placed in a horizontal row under this inscription,
rather than in a tall, narrow column running along the length of the owners body as is common on stelae from Naga-ed-Deir. Even when an inscription block does appear on the right side of a Naga-ed-Deir
stelae, the offerings are still placed to its left rather than below it.
Theban stelae of the early First Intermediate Period are generally of poor quality. As the Tenth
Dynasty collapsed and the Eleventh Dynasty rose, however, stelae at Thebes became finer, while stelae
at Naga-ed-Deir declined in quality. Thus, we see a reversal of the trend that occurred at the beginning
of the First Intermediate Period, for with the recentralization of the government came a gradual recentralization of resources as well. When the Theban nomarchs of the early Eleventh Dynasty expanded
their hegemony beyond the Thebaid, they began to build and decorate monuments on a royal scale,
although still in the regional style of pre-unification Upper Egypt. With reunification, however, Montuhotep II seems to have ordered his craftsmen to abandon the regional Upper Egyptian style and to

51Dunham,

Naga-ed-Dr Stelae, 9496, pl. 29/1; Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 898904.
Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 92124, fig. 86 and 172.
53 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 93233, fig. 175.
54 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 93334.
55 Brovarski, Inscribed Material from Naga-ed-Dr, 23536, notes that these stelae do not display the characteristics of the
specifically Theban pre-unification style. Later examples do, however, show the influence of Theban iconography, suggesting that
there was a least some communication between Naga-ed-Deir and Thebes at this point.
56Vandier, Manuel II, 45862, notes four examples, three in the Cairo Museum and one in Florence: Cairo CG 20005, Cairo
CG 20500, Cairo CG 20011, and Florence 7588. He also notes a few examples from Dendera, Nagada, and Gebelein.
52

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73

shift to the style of the Memphite court, for the later monuments of his reign closely follow Old Kingdom patterns.57
The conscious re-opening of channels of communication throughout the country also seems to have
affected the production of non-royal monuments, a phenomenon clearly illustrated by the members of
a late Eleventh/early Twelfth Dynasty stela workshop which has been identified by Rita Freed.58 Freed
terms the stelae produced by this workshop the few standing figures group based on their inclusion of a large-scale standing couple, triad, or (rarely) single male. According to Freed, small details
appearing throughout the group include incised detailing on the wigs along with the incorporation
of the same distinctive offering table with a split base and basin with tapered sides. Of the eighteen
stelae assigned to this group, five display the couple standing before offerings pose. Despite the small
details suggesting that these stelae were produced in a single workshop (or by artists tied to a single
workshop), individual pieces display a high degree of stylistic variation. Some are carved in the high
raised relief characteristic of the pre-unification period, while others exhibit the much lower raised
relief of post-unification. This phenomenon suggests that the workshop or some of its artists were
active before, during, and after reunification.
Significantly, while five of the groups provenanced stelae are known to have derived from the Theban region, two are from Dendera, two are from Abydos, and one is from Naga-ed-Deir.59 The two
stelae from Dendera seem to be the earliest members of the group, for they were both carved in high
pre-unification style relief with intricate internal detail (refer to fig. 4 for the first).60 On both, a short,
squat offering table is tucked beneath the mans kilt. In contrast, the two unprovenanced standing
couple stelae in this group are far more reminiscent of monuments from Naga-ed-Deir, for a tall offering table appears to the right of the owners staff, bearing offerings which reach to the height of his
shoulder.61 Both of these unprovenanced stelae are transitional in style, for while they display the high
raised relief of pre-unification, the faces of the figures (although somewhat crude in the case of Florence 6378) are closer to the Old Kingdom Memphite style adopted with reunification.
The fifth standing couple stela in this group, the stela of %A-InHrt (fig. 5), was excavated in a Nagaed-Deir cemetery, providing a critical link between Naga-ed-Deir and Thebes.62 Like many monuments
from First Intermediate Period Naga-ed-Deir, this stela depicts the owner and his wife standing before
a tall column of offerings placed to the right of the owners staff, some free-floating and some placed
on tables which themselves float in the air. The text reveals the owners ties to Naga-ed-Deir even more
clearly, for his name, %A-InHrt, and his epithet, the honored (one) before Onuris, lord of Thinis, reflect his devotion of the local god.63 Although the organization of elements on this stela parallels that
of First Intermediate Period examples from Naga-ed-Deir, the technique of its raised relief is that of
post-unification Thebes, for, according to Freed, this stela is executed in a low, flat, smoothly rounded,
paper-thin raised relief, with internal details carved rather than painted. She sees this low raised
57

See, for example, Robins, Art of Ancient Egypt, 90.

Freed, Stela Workshops, 3027.
59 The stelae from Dendera and Naga-ed-Deir depict a standing couple, while those from Abydos do not. The remaining eight
stelae in the group are unprovenanced; two of these include a standing couple.
60 Alternatively, as Freed, Stela Workshops, 306, notes, the Dendera stelae may have been carved after unification by an artist
trained in the pre-unification style. One of these stelae is in the Ashmolean museum (AN18961908 E.3927; fig. 4 here) and was
originally published in Petrie, Dendereh, pl. 11 bottom left. Freed refers to as Ashmolean A 149. The other stela from Dendera is
in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with designation LACMA 50.37.13; Freed, Stela Workshops, fig. 2d.
61 The stela of Mn-nxt (Florence 6378, purchased in Luxor; Freed, fig. 2b) and the stela of +dw-sbk (Ashmolean 1954.25;
Freed, fig. 2c).
62Dunham, Naga-ed-Dr Stelae, 2627, pl. 8/1; R. Freed, A Private Stela from Naga ed-Der and Relief Style of the Reign of
Amenemhet I, in Fs Dunham, 6876.
63 This epithet occurs in line 3. Translation in Dunham, Naga-ed-Dr Stelae, 27.
58

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JARCE 46 (2010)

Fig.4. AN1896-1908 E.3927. Stela of Nxt-Tw. Photograph courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

relief as being characteristic of the reign of Amenemhet I, representing the culmination of the technique introduced in the Deir el-Bahari royal workshops of Montuhotep II. Freed states that this stela
bears testimony to the fact that at least for a brief period Naga ed-Deir was in touch with the most
advanced stylistic trends.64
Despite the scattering of monuments produced in this workshop, it seems most likely that it was located at Thebes, given that it follows Theban artistic trends, that it was active at a period when Thebes
served as the capital of the country, and that five of its members are known to have come from the
Theban region. Thus, just as Theban artistic trends rippled out into the provinces, provincial motifs
influenced workshops at the new capital, for a Theban artisan seems to have drawn on the local trends
of Naga-ed-Deir in the case of the stela of %A-InHrt. The conduits of communication worked in both
directions. We can imagine several mechanisms by which stelae tied to Thebes ended up elsewhere.
It may be that officials from the provinces serving at Thebes commissioned funerary monuments to
take home with them for burial, instructing a Theban artisan as to their design.65 Alternatively, Marcel
64

Freed, A Private Stela from Naga ed-Der, 68.

Such a situation has parallels. M. Mare, Edfu under the Twelfth to Seventeenth Dynasties: The monuments in the National
Museum of Warsaw, BMSAES 12 (2009), 39, has identified the work of a single Abydos craftsman at both Edfu and Elephantine.
65

JAY

75

Mares analysis of stylistic relations

at Assiut and Elephantine suggests
that the same artisans were active in
both places, establishing the complicating fact that artisans traveled
widely; thus, perhaps it was the artisan who traveled rather than the
stela and stela owner.66
A second, closely contemporary,
group from Thebes, the colorful
Theban group, also displays the
couple standing before offerings
pose.67 Freeds stylistic analysis suggests that the earliest extant stelae
from the colorful Theban group
were produced slightly later than
the earliest stelae of the few standing figures group. While stelae in
the colorful Theban group range
from low raised relief to sunk relief with a deep outline to painting
only, the group as a whole is characterized by high quality painted details. With only six identified stelae,
this group is smaller than the few
standing figures group. Four of its
stelae derive from the Asasif region
of Thebes, one is from Edfu, and
Fig.5. MFA 25.659. Stela of %A-InHrt. Photograph courtesy of the Boston
one is unprovenanced; three stelae
Museum of Fine Arts.
depict a couple standing before offerings. The stela of _dw,68 from
the Asasif, most closely resembles the stelae of Naga-ed-Deir, for the man and the woman stand before
a tall column of floating offerings placed to the right of the mans staff. The stela of @r-nxt,69 from
Edfu, is similar, although it has a round top and a much smaller arrangement of floating offerings
concentrated in the space above the crook of the owners arm. In contrast, the unprovenanced stela of
$ty70 is short and broad, providing space for a much wider offering table bearing more closely packed
offerings, and for a man carrying a haunch of meat at the far right, facing the stelae owners across the
offering table.
The use of the couple standing before offerings pose by the few standing figures and colorful
Theban workshops is part of a broader trend of experimentation exhibited by the two groups as a
66

M. Mare, in Fs Detlef Franke (forthcoming).

Freed, Stela Workshops, 299302.
68 MMA 16.10.333; Freed, Stela Workshops, fig. 1a.
69 Florence 6364; S. Bosticco, Museo Archeologico di Firenze. Le Stele egiziane dallAntico al Nuovo Regno (Rome, 1959), 2324,
pl. 17. Schiaparelli was told of the stelas Edfu provenance at the time of its purchase in Luxor in 18841885 (M. Guidotti, personal communication).
70 Vienna, S 202; Freed, Stela Workshops, fig. 1e.
67

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JARCE 46 (2010)

whole; for example, see also the stela of KAy, in which the owner carries a bow and is accompanied
by his dog, and the stela of Imn-m-HAt, in which three seated figures embrace one another.71 Clearly,
stelae production had yet to become standardized in the late Eleventh Dynasty and very early Twelfth
Dynasty. The generally high quality of the stelae in these groups speaks to the increasing prosperity of
Thebes in the period following reunification, while the variation they display represents a high degree
of freedom of expression at a time before full-blown centralization and standardization had set in. As
Freed notes, the beginning of a dynasty, before its canons are established, is at times characterized
by ... charm and play inventiveness.72
The Shift to Abydos
During the reign of Amenemhet I, the capital was moved from Thebes to the newly founded Itjtawy, in the Memphite region, and the king shifted his burial north as well. The elite of the central
government followed suit, constructing Old Kingdom style mastabas around the royal pyramid. 73 At
the same time, the rising elite practice of building memorial chapels near the enclosure of the Osiris
festival at Abydos caused the number of stelae erected at that site to spike. Freed links this phenomenon with a shift in stela production from Thebes to Abydos, and it seems quite possible that artisans
from Thebes and elsewhere followed the market, establishing new workshops at Abydos at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom.74 However, given that many of the individuals establishing chapels were
not from Abydos, at least based on names and titles, it also seems likely that at least some of the stelae
found at Abydos were produced elsewhere. In general, the early Middle Kingdom stelae from Abydos
display extremely high degrees of heterogeneity and innovation, features presumably related to these
issues of provenance and production, in addition to the time period in which they were carved. Freed
assigns two stelae groups to the very early Twelfth Dynasty, the vertical curls and flower group and
the packed offerings group, both of which contain only four stelae.75 One of the vertical curls and
flower stelae is indeed dated to year 30 of Amenemhet I/year 10 of Senwosret I, supporting Freeds
analysis to some degree;76 however, Brovarski has redated the packed offerings stela Cairo JE 36420
to the end of the Eleventh Dynasty, expanding the span of time involved.77
All of the stelae of the vertical curls and flower group are carved in sunk relief, with little incised
detail, and Freed characterizes them as slightly awkward in their execution. Their strong similarities in
relief style, attributes, and epigraphy lead her to suggest that the whole group may have been carved
by a single craftsman.78 Despite these similarities, however, the group displays a high degree of experimentation, each stela being dramatically different from the others in its shape and organization; thus,
this group continues the experimental trends of the slightly earlier Theban groups. Two of the four
stelae in the group bear a standing couple before offerings, although in neither case are the figures
arranged as we would expect. The stelae of the vertical curls and flower group are as follows:

71

Berlin 22820 and Cairo JE 45626; Freed, Stela Workshops, fig. 2a and 1b.
Freed, Stela Workshops, 302.
73Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt, 1012. Funerary stelae also show the influence of the Old Kingdom, although with variations; as Robins, Art of Ancient Egypt, 102, notes, funerary stelae of the Middle Kingdom expand on the traditional image of
the deceased seated in front of a table of offerings by depicting family members arranged in registers around the deceased.
74 Freed, Stela Workshops, 334.
75 Freed, Stela Workshops, 31014.
76 CG 20516; CG No. 2000120780, II, 10811; I, pl. 35.
77 E. Brovarski, False Doors and History: The First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom, in D. Silverman, W. Simpson,
and J. Wegner, eds., Archaism and Innovation: Studies in the Culture of Middle Kingdom Egypt (New Haven, 2009), 39495.
78 Freed, Stela Workshops, 310 and 312.
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77

1. Cairo CG 20516. This stela is tall and narrow, with a lunette top, and has three registers with
multiple figures, including a couple seated in front of an offering table in the top register.
2. Cairo CG 20256.79 This stela is short and broad, with one register on which a man and a woman
face each other across an offering table.
3. PAHMA 5351.80 This stela is tall and narrow, with a flat top and banded border. Its one register
depicts husband and wife before an offering table above which disassociated offerings float. Most
unusually, the women does not stand behind the much larger man; instead, she perches on the
offering table in front of him, with one hand reaching back to cup his elbow.
4. BM 560.81 This stela is tall and narrow, with a flat top. It has two main registers with multiple figures
(seven standing figures and a single seated figure in the bottom left corner).
The contemporary packed offerings group displays a similar diversity and creativity. As Freed
notes, the stelae of this group are carved in low, flat raised relief with a sparing and skillful use of
interior modeling. Among the four stelae of this group, Cairo JE 36420 82 is of most interest with
respect to the present study, for it incorporates many features common to First Intermediate Period
Naga-ed-Deir stelae. It has a banded border, horizontal text across the top, and a tall pile of offerings.
As the name of this stelae group suggests, densely packed offerings of various food types are incorporated, placed directly on top of an Old Kingdom style table bearing bread loaves. This stela bears not
one, but two standing couples before offerings, for two brothers, Mesenus son Heqaib the Elder and
Mesenus son Heqaib, face each other across the table, each with his wife standing behind him. In this
Middle Kingdom example, the mans scepter passes before his body on the left and behind his body on
the right, a feature which is common on Old Kingdom false doors.83 Although unusual, this arrangement of figures is not unique, for it also occurs on stela CG 20105 from Abydos.84 In other ways, the
two stelae are quite different, and thus presumably not members of the same group, for CG 20105 is
carved in sunk relief with deep outline, the offerings are loose, not packed, and the text is arranged in
one horizontal line above 18 short vertical lines. Complicating matters further, the packed offerings
stela of the two Heqaibs was discovered in an Aswan tomb, rather than at Abydos, and seems to date to
the late Eleventh Dynasty. With this stela, we would again seem to have a case of the movement of stela
or artist, for the only other provenanced stela from the packed offerings group came from Abydos.85
During the reign of Senwosret I, royal relief became higher and rounder, as illustrated by the Karnak White Chapel. According to Freed, faces take on a sweeter, more idealizing quality which replaces
the broad expressionless faces of the reign of his predecessor.86 As Freed notes, these features occur
on non-royal monuments as well, notably the high quality stela of In-it=f son of At-Imn from the North
Cemetery of Abydos, assigned to her many active figures group.87 The organization of elements on
the stela is characteristic of Naga-ed-Deir: it has a banded border and three lines of horizontal text
79

CG No. 2000120780, I, pl. 19; Freed, Stela Workshops, fig. 4a.

Stelae, 9, pl. 47 (#93); Freed, Stela Workshops, fig. 4b. Freed calls the stela Hearst 93 based on Lutzs numbering.
81 Freed, Stela Workshops, fig. 4c.
82 Freed, A Private Stela from Naga ed-Der, 76, fig. 7; idem, Stela Workshops, fig. 5c. In the 1981 article, Freed associates
this stela with the stela of %A-InHrt of the few standing figures group, a position which she seems to have abandoned in the
latter article. While Freed assigns it to a single individual named Msnw, Brovarski, False Doors and History, 394, reascribes it to
Mesenus son Heqaib the Elder and Mesenus son Heqaib.
83 See, for example, the figures of the Third Dynasty official Khabausokar in his offering niche. Robins, Art of Ancient Egypt,
52, fig. 47.
84 CG No. 2000120780, I, 12829, IV, pl. 11.
85 Cairo CG 20315; Freed, Stela Workshops, fig. 5b.
86 Freed, A Private Stela from Naga ed-Der, 76.
87 Cairo CG 20561; W. Simpson, The Terrace of the Great God at Abydos: The Offering Chapels of Dynasties 12 and 13, PPYE 5 (New
Haven, 1974), 17, pl. 11 bottom; Freed, A Private Stela from Naga ed-Der, 76; idem, Stela Workshops, 320.
80Lutz,

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JARCE 46 (2010)

above a couple standing before an offering table. Both the relief style of this stela and its high quality
suggest that it was produced in a royal workshop or by high level artisans with connections to royal
workshops. Significantly, these skilled craftsmen seem to have been influenced by the organization
of elements that had developed at Naga-ed-Deir in the First Intermediate Period, suggesting that an
interaction between national levels of production and provincial styles continued into the reign of
Senwosret I. However, the influence of such regional variation does seem to have been decreasing at
that point in time, for the stela of In-it=f is the only member of the group to depict a standing couple,
and the other three stelae bearing In-it=fs name are dramatically different in organization.88
From the middle of the reign of Senwosret I onward, stelae discovered at Abydos display a high
degree of standardization, probably a mark of a shift to mass production as the popularity of stelae
continued to increase.89 While stelae organization becomes more complex, involving multiple registers
and many figures, the owner ceases to stand, instead sitting before the offering table in standard Old
Kingdom style. Although Freed lists many stelae belonging to groups which date from the middle of
the reign of Senwosret I to the end of the reign of Senwosret II, a couple stands before offerings on
only one, a stela belonging to a man named %anxy.90 This stela is a member of Freeds elongated skull
group, dated from late Senwosret I through early Amenemhet II and carved in sunk relief with a deep
outline. The stela of %anxy stands out among the standing couple stelae examined thus far in that it is
round-topped, not rectangular; this feature is consistent with contemporary trends, for round-topped
stelae experienced an upsurge in popularity during the Middle Kingdom.
Couples standing before the funerary meal continued to be rare in the second half of the Middle
Kingdom. There is, however, a single, significant example from Naga-ed-Deir, dated to year 30 of
Amenemhet III (fig. 6).91 Although this stela is round-topped as well, otherwise it is far closer stylistically to Naga-ed-Deir monuments of the First Intermediate Period than to contemporary late Middle
Kingdom works from Abydos, for it has a banded border and a tall column of offerings placed to the
right of the mans staff. In the Middle Kingdom, Naga-ed-Deir was eclipsed by the rise of Abydos across
the river, becoming a provincial town outside the political and artistic mainstream.92 The isolated
craftsmen of Middle Kingdom Naga-ed-Deir clearly followed the patterns established by their First
Intermediate Period forebears and, indeed, Freed suggests that the figures on this stela may have been
copied from exposed earlier works.93 In contrast, their contemporaries at Abydos seem to have been
far more connected to national trends.
Conclusion
The reduction in tomb decoration evident in provincial First Intermediate Period cemeteries is in
some ways paralleled by the abandonment of more elaborate false doors and wall paintings in favor
of slab stelae in the tombs of Khufus officials at Giza. For Der Manuelian, there are three possible
causes which might explain this phenomenon: (1) royal command (early Dynasty 4 rulers dictated this
downsizing in order to emphasize their own central position); (2) economics (the construction of
the Great Pyramid exhausted available resources); (3) non-linear reductionism (despite our mod88

ANOC 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3; Simpson, Terrace of the Great God at Abydos, pls. 10 and 11.
Freed, Stela Workshops, 336.
90 Kansas City 3316; Freed, Stela Workshops, fig. 9c. A few other members of the attenuated figures group also display standing figures; this, however, represents a different phenomenon. These stelae typically include no offerings or offering
formula, and thus Freed, Stela Workshops, 332, n. 50, suggests that these critical elements would have appeared on another
element of the offering chapel.
91Dunham, Naga-ed-Dr Stelae, 1920, pl. 5/1.
92 Freed, A Private Stela from Naga ed-Der, 68.
93 Freed, A Private Stela from Naga ed-Der, 74, n. 45.
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79

ern assumptions, the simpler slab

stelae may actually have been the
preferred choice of officials during
the reign of Khufu).94 Der Manuelian himself clearly favors the third
option, suggesting that a modern
Egyptological assumption on the
linearity of Egyptian tomb development, and the concept of progress leads to the expectation that
funerary complexes should become
more, rather than less, elaborate
over time. He describes the Giza
slab stelae as follows: Complete in
and of themselves, they did not represent a compromise, sacrifice, or
a hurried solution due to untimely
death, but rather provided every
critical element needed to ensure
the continued successful mortuary
cult.95 Although First Intermediate
Period provincial stelae are certainly
not of the same extremely high
quality as the Giza slab stelae, these
words could be applied to them as
well. The traditional interpretation
views the decline in stelae quality in
the First Intermediate Period as evidence of a retreat from the artistic
heights of the centralized Old Kingdom; T. G. H. James, for example,
Fig.6. MFA 13.3844. Stela of %n-ny-anx and Iy. Photograph courtesy of the
describes the stelae of this period
Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
as objects of little artistic merit, being characterized by a primitive and
ungainly style.96 However, as scholars such as Seidlmayer have stressed more recently, this was also
a period during which resources were spread more evenly throughout the country as a whole. Thus,
I would argue that the First Intermediate Period stelae, and the smaller, embedded phenomenon of
the couple standing before offerings pose, certainly represent a change, but not necessarily a step
backward.
Instead, the design of provincial First Intermediate stelae may be described best as a practical way to
utilize the more even distribution of resources characteristic of the period. As we have seen, standing
figures became extremely popular at this time, probably ultimately deriving from the arrangement of
figures on Old Kingdom false doors. The combination of an offering table or pile of offerings before
a standing couple first appears at Naga-ed-Deir at the beginning of the Ninth Dynasty, at a time when
94

Der Manuelian, Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis, 16769.

Der Manuelian, Slab Stelae of the Giza Necropolis, 169.
96 T. James, Egyptian Funerary Stelae of the First Intermediate Period, BMQ 20/4 (1956), 87.
95

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communication between provincial artisans and royal Memphite workshops seems to have been breaking down. The pose reached its highest level of popularity with the Ninth Dynasty Polychrome and
Green Groups and, although few of the slightly later Naga-ed-Deir stelae of the Tenth/Eleventh Dynasties can be grouped stylistically, this arrangement of elements continued in use. Reunification seems
to have brought about a higher degree of communication throughout the country, and the stela of
%A-InHrt, produced at Thebes and excavated at Naga-ed-Deir, strongly suggests some form of communication between Naga-ed-Deir and Thebes in the early Middle Kingdom. Stelae from Abydos dating
to the reign of Amenemhet I continue to incorporate the couple standing before offerings pose. As
the Twelfth Dynasty progressed, however, stelae production shifted to standardized mass production
and this arrangement of elements dropped out of use, except at the marginalized site of Naga-ed-Deir
where it had become extremely popular several hundred years before.
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