Funerary Stela

The limestone funerary stela of the inspector of priests Mereri and his wife Bebi is mostly intact, presenting four lines of hieroglyphic text that occupy approximately half of the stela. The text is comprised of formulaic offering requests that read as follows: (1) 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, lord of the sacred land. (2) Invocation offerings of bread and beer, cattle and fowl for the inspector of priests, the revered one before the great god, Mereri. (3) A thousand bread loaves, a thousand beer jugs, a thousand cattle, a thousand fowl, a thousand r(A)-geese, a thousand Trp-geese, a thousand s(r)-geese, a thousand wnwt-geese, a thousand of all good things for the revered one Mereri.

The lower half of the stela depicts Mereri and his wife Bebi sitting in front of a rich and varied banquet of offerings. Bebi is wearing a tripartite, striated wig, and is identified by a hieroglyphic line of text inscribed above her: “His beloved wife, the royal acquaintance, Bebi.”