A DEMOTIC STELA FROM THE FIRST COURT OF LUXOR TEMPLE
Richard Jasnow
Johns Hopkins University
Few scholars can rival Richard Fazzini in his
knowledge of the monuments of ancient Thebes.
He may be a New Yorker by birth, but certainly
he feels equally at home in Luxor, where he has
excavated for so many years. I have thought it
fitting, therefore, to offer to him in this Festschrift
the publication of a rather puzzling object from
Luxor Temple.
In 1981, the Egyptian Antiquities Organiza-
tion carried out clearance operations in the First
Court of Luxor Temple.1 Among the objects
found upon reaching the original floor level was
the Demotic stela presented here (fig. 1).2 It is the
upper portion of a sandstone block now measur-
ing 28.7 cm high and 41 cm wide. At the instiga-
tion of the then director of the Epigraphic Survey,
Professor Lanny Bell, the much-fractured stone
was conserved by Epigraphic Survey conserva-
tors Richard and Helen Jaeschke, who observed
traces of gold leaf in the course of their exami-
nation.3 There is no indication of a lunette, and
we have here, presumably, the original shape of
the stela. I would not venture to be more precise
1 I know of no published description of this specific
work, but for an overview of clearance activity from this time
period at Luxor Temple, see El-Sayed Hegazi, “Quelques
découvertes fortuites récentes,” in Egypte-Louqsor Temple du Ka
Royal: Dossiers Histoires et Archéologie 101 (1986), 18, with other
similar small finds of stelae. For earlier clearance at Luxor
Temple in the 1950s, which also revealed Late Period stelae,
see Labib Habachi, “Two More Stelae of King Tiberius
Unearthed in the Eastern Side of Luxor Temple,” Miscellanea
in Honorem Josephi Vergote, OLP 6/7, 247–252; and Habachi,
“Clearance of the Area to the East of Luxor Temple and
Discovery of Some Objects,” ASAÉ 51 (1951): 447–468.
2 I thank Dr. Mohammed el-Sughair for the original
permission to publish the stela. I am very grateful to
Professor Lanny Bell for encouraging me to work on this
object, when I was a student-epigrapher during the 1981–
1982 season of the Epigraphic Survey. Dr. Zahi Hawass,
secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities,
kindly reconfirmed this permission in January of 2006.
Professor Raymond Johnson, the director of the Epigraphic
Survey, graciously allowed me to publish the Epigraphic
Survey photographs of the stela (taken by Diana Olson).
than later Ptolemaic or Early Roman Period with
regard to its date.4
The stela shows two male figures facing one
another, both holding what are probably palm
branches in their hands. The Demotic inscription
above and between them reads P A-tı"-Wsı"r s A(?) P A-
šr-Mnt, “Petosiris, son(?) of Pashermont” (figs. 2
and 3). Since the transliteration of the s A is
uncertain, one might, alternatively, understand
“Petosiris (and) Pashermont.” If so, these could
be the names of the two individuals shown. I
tend, however, to think it preferable to render
“Petosiris, son(?) of Pashermont,” which would
then designate the person responsible for the
stela.
The scene itself presents problems. A search
through the literature has produced no exact
parallels.5 There are, to be sure, reliefs showing
mirror images, particularly of deities. The jubi-
lar himself has published a New Kingdom stela,
probably from Luxor, displaying “two confronted
gods,” with a format not very dissimilar from that
of the Demotic stela.6 The two figures of the stela
The finished drawing of the facsimile (figure 3) is the work
of Dr. Johnson and Thad Rasche, senior artist for the
Epigraphic Survey in 1981–1982. I thank also my colleague,
Professor Betsy Bryan, for helpfully discussing the stela with
me.
3 See Lanny Bell, “The Epigraphic Survey,” in The
Oriental Institute 1981–1982 Annual Report, ed. Robert McC.
Adams (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1982), 7. This
gilding or paint seems to be chiefly on the left figure. On the
use of gilding for Graeco-Roman Period stelae, see Robert
Bianchi et al., Cleopatra’s Egypt: Age of the Ptolemies (Mainz:
Philipp von Zabern, 1988), 75, where it is observed that
gilding is “for the most part associated with deification.”
4 It was stated in Bianchi et al., Cleopatra’s Egypt, 87, that
“there are few detailed studies on Ptolemaic relief styles,”
and this still seems to be the case.
5 For a very useful comprehensive collection of Demotic
votive inscriptions on stelae and similar monuments, see
Sven Vleeming, Some Coins of Artaxerxes and other Short Texts
in the Demotic Script found on various Objects and gathered from many
Publications, Studia Demotica 5 (Leuven: Peeters, 2001).
6 Richard Fazzini, “Two New Kingdom Stelae from
 a demotic stela from the first court of luxor temple
published here are almost identical. Their bodies
are strikingly thin.7 They are wearing broad neck-
laces as well as armlets. The clothing and jewelry
are those often worn by deities in Graeco-Roman
Period stelae,8 and are too generic to provide
helpful dating criteria. They both boast the same
baggy wigs of traditional type.9 They were possi-
bly holding ankh symbols, now destroyed, in their
extended arms.10 While these are presumably two
distinct individuals, there is clearly an intimate
association between them. One is reminded, in-
deed, of the hieroglyph of the two facing men
holding hands (often read snsn, “to join, associate
with”)11 and of the various possible Egyptian rep-
resentations of twins.12
the Collection of Charles Edwin Wilbour in the Brooklyn
Museum,” in Iubilate Conlegae: Studies in Memory of Abdel Aziz
Sadek, ed. Charles C. van Siclen, VA 10/2–3 (San Antonio:
Van Siclen Books, 1995), 96–97. The two deities there are
Horus and Shed. He cites another stela displaying two
confronted gods, discovered near Luxor Temple, illustrated
in Hegazi, “Quelques découvertes fortuites récentes,” 18.
Fazzini suggests that there too the gods are Horus and
Shed.
7 Cf., for example, the equally thin figures in Roman
Period Cairo Stela 31122, Wilhelm Spiegelberg, Die demotis-
chen Denkmäler 30601–31166. I. Die demotischen Inschriften, Cata-
logue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire
(Leipzig: W. Drugulin 1904), 48 and pl. 11.
8 E.g., Horus, as illustrated in Ahmed Kamal, Stèles
ptolémäiques et romaines, Catalogue général des antiquités
égyptiennes du Musée du Caire, nos. 22001–22208. (Cairo:
IFAO, 1905), pl. 83, no. 114.
9 Cf. Bianchi et al., Cleopatra’s Egypt, 65 and 68.
10 On the holding of ankh signs by gods, see Philippe
Derchain, “Anchzeichen,” in LÄ 1, 268–269.
11 Penelope Wilson, A Ptolemaic Lexikon, OLA 78 (Leu-
ven: Peeters, 1997), 869. On this hieroglyph, see also Gün-
ter Vittmann, “Bemerkungen zum Festkalender des Imhotep
(Statuenbasis BM 512),” in Studien zu Sprache und Religion
Ägyptens zu Ehren von Wolfhart Westendorf überreicht von seinen Fre-
unden und Schülern 2, ed. Friedrich Junge (Göttingen: Hubert
& Co., 1984), 952; John Baines, “Egyptian Twins,” Orientalia
54 (1985): 476.
12 Baines, “Egyptian Twins.”
13 The basic reference is still Ingrid Gamer-Wallert,
Die Palmen im Alten Ägypten: Eine Untersuchung ihrer praktischen,
symbolischen und religiösen Bedeutung, MÄS 1 (Berlin: Bruno
Hessling, 1962). For the possible confusion between the two
trees, see, for example, Nathalie Baum, Arbres et Arbustes
de l’Égypte ancienne: la liste de la tomb thébaine d’Ineni (no 81),
OLA 31 (Leuven: Departement Oriëntalistiek, 1988), 81,
where the sycamore in an illustration of the “goddess of
the sycamore” does not look much different from what
our two men are holding. See Edna Russmann, “The
Motif of Bound Papyrus Plants and the Decorative Program
in Mentuemhat’s First Court (Further Remarks on the
Decoration of the Tomb of Mentuemhat, 1),” JARCE 32
(1995): 118, on the problem of misidentification of plants,
e.g., lotus for papyrus.
131
A distinctive feature is the branches. These are
most likely palm fronds, although it can be admit-
tedly difficult to distinguish, for example, between
palm and sycamore.13 The significance of the
palm tree in Egypt is well documented and often
discussed. The palm is associated with numer-
ous deities, such as Thoth,14 Anubis,15 Hathor,16
Taweret,17 Min,18 Osiris,19 and Re.20 The palm
can play a role in the temple,21 royal,22 and pri-
vate funerary cult.23 Deities or priests carry palm
branches.24 Thus, in one Roman Period scene,
a priest of Isis(?) holds a palm frond.25 Several
striking Roman Period reliefs from Coptos show
young men bearing palm branches.26 The palm
branch is a rather common motif in Graeco-
14 Gamer-Wallert, Die Palmen im Alten Ägypten, 97–104.
15 Nadine Guihou, “Génies funéraires, croque-mitaines
ou anges gardiens? Étude sur les fouets, balais, palmes et
épis en guise de couteaux,” in Encyclopédie religieuse de l’Univers
végétal: Croyances phytoreligieuses de l’Égypte ancienne 1, ed. Sydney
Aufrère, Orientalia Monspeliensia 10 (Montpellier: Univer-
sité Paul Valery-Montpellier III, 1999), 387.
16 Gamer-Wallert, Die Palmen im Alten Ägypten, 105–106.
17 Ibid., 106–108.
18 Ibid., 108–110.
19 Pierre Koemoth, Osiris et les arbres, Aegyptiaca Leodi-
ensia 3 (Liège: Centre informatique de philosophie et lettres,
1994), 270–274.
20 Gamer-Wallert, Die Palmen im Alten Ägypten, 110–113.
21 Eleni Vassilika in Ptolemaic Philae, OLA 34 (Leuven:
Peeters, 1989), 379; PLT 7, illustrates a palm branch on
offering table. Given the stela’s discovery within Luxor
Temple, one may at least observe that the palm plays a
role in the Opet festival (Guilhou, “Génies funéraires,” 387),
without pressing that possible connection.
22 Gamer-Wallert, Die Palmen im Alten Ägypten, 114–126.
23 Ibid., 126–128 and, at the tomb, 129–139. See also
Edmund Hermsen, Lebensbaumsymbolik im alten Ägypten: Eine
Untersuchung, Arbeitsmaterialien zur Religionsgeschichte 5
(Cologne: Brill, 1981),109–112. A similar palm branch dec-
orates the pylon of a tomb from the Saqqara tomb of
Horemheb (Sylvia Schoske, Barbara Kreissl, and Renate
Germer, “Anch” Blumen für das Leben: Pflanzen im alten Ägypten,
Schriften aus der ägyptischen Sammlung 6 (Munich: Karl
M. Lipp Verlag, 1992), 115. Mark Smith, in Papyrus Harkness
(MMA 31.9.7) (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 2005), 141, remarks:
“The palm branch is presented to the deceased as a symbol
of eternal life.”
24 An excellent discussion with many illustrations is Guil-
hou, “Génies funéraires.” She studies those guardian fig-
ures that hold palms or other kinds of branches in addition
to, or instead of, knives. Underworld deities carry palm(?)
branches in the Ninth Hour of the Amduat (Erik Hornung,
Die Unterweltsbücher der Ägypter [Zurich: Artemis Verlag, 1992],
155).
25 Bianchi et al., Cleopatra’s Egypt, 240.
26 Claude Traunecker et al., Coptos: L’Egypte antique aux
portes du désert (Paris: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon/ Réu-
nion des musées nationaux, 2000), 134–136. These are from
the “Maison des Palmyréniens” (second-third centuries CE).