Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Stela of the Overseer of the Herds Abkau and His Wife Imemi
Middle Kingdom
Not on view
This object is not part of The Met collection. It was in the Museum for a special exhibition and has been returned to the lender.
This stela, full of stunning detail, was probably erected in a chapel in Abydos, as the inscription states that the stela was placed near the great Osiris temple. Its owners are seated in the lower right corner. One of the women standing on the left presents a menat necklace and a sunshade, both of which were connected to regenerative rituals of the goddess Hathor, while other figures present funerary offerings. The complex and cryptic register above the figures seems to depict episodes from the myth of the god Osiris or the annual ritual reenactment of his death, burial, and resurrection.
#321. Stela of the Leader of the Herds Abkau and His Wife Imemi
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