The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Stele of the High Priest of Ptah, Shedsunefertem

Stele of the High Priest of Ptah, Shedsunefertem

945–924 BCE
(1069–715 BCE), Dynasty 22, reign of Shosheng I (943–922 BCE)
Overall: 86.8 x 78.5 cm (34 3/16 x 30 7/8 in.)
Location: 107 Egyptian

Description

This stele of Shedsunefertem, the High Priest of Ptah, is rich in religious symbolism. In the center of the top register is a disk and crescent, originally gilded. At either side a baboon raises its arms in adoration. The Egyptians believed that the jabbering of the baboons at dawn was a hymn of praise to the sun god Ra in a secret language only the king understood. It begins, "Praising Ra when he shines on the horizon." Directly below in the middle register a child god is seated on a lotus flower. In Egyptian mythology the sun arose out of the primeval waters at the dawn of creation in a lotus flower. Winged figures of Maat, goddess of Truth, stand protectively at either side. The damaged figure of the high priest himself, wearing the panther skin and jackal-collar of his office, appears at the far right, worshipping the god Ptah, whose consort, the lioness-headed goddess Sekhmet, appears on the far left. The figures in the bottom register are colleagues who appear here as dependents under the powerful high priest's protection.
  • Purchased from Khawam Brothers, Cairo, by Lucy Olcott Perkins through Henry W. Kent, April 23, 1913, with 1914.662, 1914.542, and 1914.663
  • Williams, Caroline Ransom. "Stela of a High-Priest of Memphis." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 8/9 (1918): 67-69. Reproduced: Front Matter; Mentioned: pp. 67-69 www.jstor.org
    Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Reproduced: p. 258; Mentioned: p. 258-260
    Jurman, Claus. Memphis in der Dritten Zwischenzeit: eine studie zur (selbst-) Repräsentation von eliten in der 21. und 22. Dynastie. 2020. Reproduced; Tafel 114-116, D-060
  • {{cite web|title=Stele of the High Priest of Ptah, Shedsunefertem|url=false|author=|year=945–924 BCE|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1914.669