Skip Navigation

Stela of a Soldier Named Amunemhat

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor
This stela depicts Sobek, the crocodile-god, wearing an elaborate crown and standing on a high pedestal or altar beneath the curved roof of a shrine. Sobek’s offering table is piled high with bread, meat, green onions, and a bouquet of lotuses. The stela’s donor, identified as Amunemhat, a foot soldier in the “Company of Menkheperre [Thutmose III]),” kneels in adoration. Foreign victories enriched both the king and his army and may have enabled Amunemhat to pay for this small but carefully worked stela, which he dedicated in Sobek’s temple at Dahamsha (ancient Sumenu) in southern Egypt.
MEDIUM Granite
  • Place Found: Dahamsha, Egypt
  • DATES ca. 1479-1425 B.C.E.
    DYNASTY Dynasty 18
    PERIOD New Kingdom
    DIMENSIONS 13 3/4 x 9 7/16 x 3 9/16 in. (34.9 x 24 x 9 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 66.174.2
    CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Black granite round-topped stela with sunk relief representation and incised inscriptions. In upper portion Sebek-ra in crocodile form with crown squatting on an “altar” under a baldachin facing right; before him a table with food offerings; one line of text above. In lower third kneeling worshipper named Amun-em-hat facing left; before him, from left to right, four columns of text and one column with his name. Condition: Good; slightly worn. Back left rough.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor
    CAPTION Stela of a Soldier Named Amunemhat, ca. 1479-1425 B.C.E. Granite, 13 3/4 x 9 7/16 x 3 9/16 in. (34.9 x 24 x 9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 66.174.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.66.174.2_erg456.jpg)
    IMAGE cover, CUR.66.174.2_erg456.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2007
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.