Stela

The limestone funerary stela, coarsely executed, belongs to a noblewoman called Maat-Weti, whose ren-nefer, or “good name,” was Weti. On the stela, the noblewoman is depicted sitting on a chair with bull’s legs, and the back of the chair’s side rail is decorated with a lotus flower. The chair is also furnished with a cushion. Weti, wearing a long, fitted dress and a shoulder-length wig of horizontal curls, extends her left arm towards the offering table, which is laden with choice meat cuts and other goods. A small manservant is offering Weti an elongated vessel of the same type that is stored in a rack under the offering table; it is most likely a djut-jar and contains aromatic wine.

The inscription is comprised of two lines of hieroglyphic text at the top of the stela, and three columns of text on the right portion of the stela. The text presents an offering request for the deceased woman along with her titles and name. The lines 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 embalming place, invocation offerings of bread and beer for the noblewoman of the king, Maat-Weti, (2) royal acquaintance, priestess of Hathor, mistress of Dendera, her good name, Weti.” The columns, from right to left, read: “(1) the revered one (f.) before Osiris, lord of (2) Abydos, the revered one (f.) before the great god, (3) the revered one (f.) before Anubis, he who is upon his mountain, Weti.”