Israel Stela
From ArchaeoWiki
The Israel Stela (also, the Merneptah Stela, with variations) is the most common designation for a large black granite stela discovered in 1903 by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, in the Mortuary Temple of Merneptah, and now displayed in Cairo's Egyptian Museum [CG 34025, verso].
A parallel copy of the text recorded on the Israel Stela is to be found also inscribed on the inner (western) face of the east wall of the Cour de la Cachette within the Temple of Amun at Karnak. This wall-inscribed copy is badly-damaged and therefore incomplete.
The Israel Stela originated within the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III at Kom el-Hetan, just south-east of Merneptah's own funerary edifice; it was removed and recarved, it seems, to hasten preparations for Merenptah's mortuary temple.
Description
The lunette (curved top) of the stela features two matching scenes of Merneptah as ruler receiving the sword of victory, from the god Amun and his son Khonsu on the one side, and from Amun and his consort Mut on the other.
The verso of the stela of Amenhotep III had remained blank, if somewhat rough—it was on this surface that the scribes and sculptors of Merneptah were instructed to inscribe a Triumph Hymn. The wall-inscribed copy utilised 39 lines of hierogylphic writing in compact normal spacing—the stela copy, by contrast, had to accomodate the entire text of 3,314 signs in 1000 lexical units within 28 lines; well-proportioned, but employing a compacted method of grouping signs within the long lines (and often resorting even to vertical arrangement) that resulted in a crowded but legible presentation.
Bibliography
- Hasel, Michael G. [1994], "Israel in the Merneptah Stela", BASOR 296 (1994), pp.45-61.
- [1998a], “A Textual and Iconographic Note on prt and mnt in Egyptian Military Accounts”, GM 167 (1998), pp.61-72.
- [1998b], Domination and Resistance: Egyptian Military Activity in the Southern Levant, ca. 1300-1185 BC, [Probleme der Ägyptologie 11, ed. Schenkel, W. and Redford, D.B.], Leiden, Boston, Köln: E.J. Brill, 1998 (publication of PhD dissertation, University of Arizona, 1996).
- [2003], “Merneptah’s Inscription and Reliefs and the Origin of Israel”, in Nakhai, B.A. (ed.), The Near East in the Southwest - Essays in Honor of William G. Dever, [ AASOR 58], Boston: ASOR, 2003, pp.19-44.
- [2004], "The Structure of the Final Hymnic-Poetic Unit on the Merenptah Stela", ZAW 116 (2004), pp.75-81.
- Hjelm, Ingrid and Thompson [2002], Thomas L., "The Victory Song of Merneptah, Israel and the People of Palestine", JSOT 27.1 (2002), pp.3-18.
