Step 8 of 9

Royalty on the left

Fig. 4 - Stela of the sculptor Qen and his family worshiping Amenhotep I and his mother Ahmose Nefertari. From the reign of Ramesses II - Metropolitan Museum of Art - [59.93](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/549536) — Fig. 4 - Stela of the sculptor Qen and his family worshiping Amenhotep I and his mother Ahmose Nefertari. From the reign of Ramesses II - Metropolitan Museum of Art - 59.93

On the left are three human figures who are designated as royalty because of the royal cobra on their foreheads and because their names are enclosed within an oval, known as a cartouche. The first figure even has two of his names in cartouches: this is king Amenhotep I. He is followed by queen Ahmose Nefertari, who was Amenhotep’s mother, and Queen Ahhotep, his grandmother.

These royal figures belong to a much earlier period than the stela itself, some 300 years earlier, and they played a crucial role in the foundation period of the New Kingdom. After their deaths, they were deified and remained as popular objects of veneration by the population of Thebes throughout the New Kingdom period. Because they were human figures, they were considered effective mediators to get requests granted by the great gods in heaven, in this case Re-Horus and Osiris who are depicted on top of the stela.

Both the gods and the royal triad are holding ankh hieroglyphs in their hands, as indications of their divine status. This detail has been forgotten in the image of Horus, but his closed fist shows that it should have been there.