The History Place - Mummies: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt - British Museum; Bowers Museum

STELA OF BESENMUT
Sycamore fig wood, paint on plaster

Middle 26th Dynasty, about 600 BC
This round-topped stela is divided into three sections. At the top is a large curved hieroglyph representing the sky, below which is a winged sun-disc from which hang a pair of uraeus serpents. The hieroglyphs identify this as a representation of "he of Behdet," a term for the (originally) sky god Horus; this decoration is extremely common in the semi-circular "lunette" at the top of stelae. The second and third parts are divided into left and right sides, with a scene above and a text relating to that scene below. On the left, Besenmut stands in adoration of the god Atum, represented in his usual form of a man wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.

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