Stelae
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Fig. 1 - Stela of Nebra - British Museum EA276
This little fragment must once have been part of a monument we call a stela. Stelae are flat slabs made of stone and sometimes wood that usually feature an inscription and/or depiction on at least one side. They already occurred in the First Dynasty and were used until the Islamic period. In the New Kingdom, stelae such as this one were mostly placed into walls of tomb chapels or local temples, but some free-standing stelae also exist.
Such New Kingdom stelae would usually show the owner in adoration before some deities. In the 18th dynasty the children and wife of the owner were also often depicted, and in the Ramesside period more family members could be added.
This particular fragment still shows an upper edge and two lines of vertical inscription. The edge, which is also slightly bent, indicates that it belonged to the top part and that the stela it originally belonged to was a round-topped stela. It might originally have looked similar to the stela of Nebra, which also comes from Deir el-Medina and dates to the 19th dynasty of the New Kingdom (Fig. 1).