Stela

The limestone fragment displays part of a funerary stela which belonged to Bebi and his wife Iamyt. The figures of the deceased and his wife are rendered in bas-relief while the hieroglyphic text is in sunk relief; the execution is rather crude. Bebi is striding forth, holding a staff of office in his left hand and a sekhem-sceptre with his right. He is wearing a shoulder-length wig of horizontal curls, a wesekh-collar and a knee-length kilt with a projecting panel and a protruding knot at the waist. The female figure, identified by a hieroglyphic text as “his beloved wife, Iamyt,” embraces Bebi with her left arm. She is also shown striding forth, which is not common for female figures, who are usually represented as standing still, with their feet together. Iamyt is wearing a tripartite, striated wig, a wesekh-collar, and a long, fitted dress with two straps at the top. The way the eyes of both figures are sculpted, with a thick, contouring rim, appears to be common in the First Intermediate Period funerary stelae found at Dendera.

The hieroglyphic inscription is an example of retrograde writing and reads as follows: “An offering that the king gives (and) an offering that Anubis (gives), he who is upon his mountain, he who is in the place of embalming, the revered one, Bebi.”