Fragment of Henenu Stela A

The fragment preserves parts of three lines of a sunk relief inscription from Stela A of the official Henenu, the best preserved and mostly finely executed of a group of four fragmentary stelae found by Met Egyptologists in his tomb (no. 313) at Deir el-Bahri during the winter of 1922-23. Reconstruction of the approximately thirty-five recovered fragments show that the stela was horizontally oriented and depicted Henenu seated before an offering table laden with food; above and in front of him were lengthy biographical texts. The finely rendered, sunk relief hieroglyphs have sharply cut edges and carefully placed interior details; they do not appear to have been painted. The complete stela, estimated to have been about 218 cm long and 22 cm high, was placed in a shallow recess on the left side of the tomb’s rock-cut vestibule.

As reconstructed and translated by former Met curator William C. Hayes, these two joined fragments belong to the center of lines two, three, and four at the top of the stela. The text recounts the services Henenu provided for his lord, King Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II.
The upper line reads “…[one beloved of my city, one who satis]fied it with my bread…” The center line reads “…[He made me]…[and] his servant of his desire; [and] I taxed for him This of the Thinite nome…” The lowermost line may refer to loans of grain.