Stele of the Dignitary Nefer
Type:
Funerary monument and ornaments
Year:
Old Kingdom, Dynasty IV (2640-2520 B.C.)
Material and technique:
Limestone
Origin:
From Lower Egypt, Giza, Mastaba of Nefer (G 2110)
Inventory:
Inv. MB 1
This stele depicts an offering scene with the dead man seated at a table. A long inscription in hieroglyphs contains a funerary formula followed by a list of all the gifts that the offerer, symbolically presented as the king, is giving the dead man for his journey to the underworld: bread, water, food, incense, cosmetics, milk, grain, vegetables, fruit, sweets, fabrics of different kinds and sizes, plus “1000 calves, 1000 young antelopes, 1000 cranes, 1000 geese.”
Masterpieces of the hall
The hall
FUNERARY RELIEFS
Nearly all the reliefs in the Barracco Museum’s collection belong to the funerary sphere.
They come from a type of tomb, the mastaba (from the Arabic word for bench), which was especially characteristic of Old Kingdom necropolises.
