Two or Three Things on Four Women Depicted on One Stela (MMA 36.3.270

Abstract

This paper deals with a painted limestone stela preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art/New York (MMA 36.3.270) dating to the late Middle Kingdom and found in the 1930s by the MMA Museum’s expedition at Thebes, Asasif. The painted stela has a hieroglyphic inscription and a scene of four individuals obviously to be read as female. Stelae depicting only women are quite rare and thus this stela deserves a closer look. We will see that the names mentioned, the identification of the women and their relationship to each other, are anything but clear. Taking the broader find context into account and comparing it with similar burials, it turns out that it is thus possible to get more information about these women, their social status, and their profession.