This stela, the middle portion of what was once a much larger monument, shows the funeral of Ramose, the High Priest of the god Montu. Montu was one of the chief gods of the Theban area and was especially associated with war. The scene, carved in sunk relief, shows several different acts of a complex ritual known as the Opening of the Mouth that was intended to enable the deceased to regain the ability to see, breathe, eat, hear, and speak in the afterlife.^[1] Egyptian art’s tendency to collapse time is illustrated here by depicting several individual rituals that were performed in a sequence as if they were being performed simultaneously.1

To the right stands Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the necropolis (or perhaps this figure is a funerary priest wearing a jackal mask), whose hands support the anthropoid coffin of Ramose in an upright position. The text behind him states that he “places his arms upon all the justified ones.” The term “justified” is an epithet applied to those whom the gods judge worthy to be reborn in the afterlife. The head of the coffin is topped with a cone of perfumed fat and a lotus, both emblems of rebirth in the afterlife.^[2] Ramose’s widow—identified by the inscription as “His wife, the Mistress of the House, Henutmehyt”—kneels before the coffin, embracing it with her left hand and raising her right hand to her head in a gesture of grief.2

Three unnamed priests officiate. Two of the priests stand in the center near the coffin. The first holds aloft squat jars known as nemset, libating the mummy with liquid that is shown as lines passing over the head of the coffin. The priest is dressed in a long tunic and a robe with a leopard head, indicating his rank as a sem priest who presides over the Opening of the Mouth ritual. The other priest holds a long-handled, spoonlike censer from which emerges the smoke of incense. In his other hand, he grasps a slender hes vase that contains liquid purifications. He is dressed more simply in a long kilt. A third priest, at the far left, is dressed in a long, belted tunic with sleeves, topped with a billowing overkilt. He reads from an unrolled papyrus, the case for which is tucked under his right arm. The hair (or wig) of each of the priests falls just past his shoulders.3

The groups of figures are separated by offerings. In front of the two priests in the center is an offering table loaded with food for the soul of Ramose. Following the conventions of Egyptian representation, the stack of offerings is shown as if seen from above. Thus, the two (unidentified) horizontal objects that appear as if they are at the top of a pile are in fact understood to be farthest away from the viewer, but on the surface of the table. The other offerings, below, include a bird with its neck bent back, two round loaves of bread, another fowl, three conical cups, and five more round loaves of bread. Short lines above to the right of the offerings represent fresh greens upon which the provisions rest.4

Between the two groups of priests is a chest with its lid propped up on the left (fig. 1). All the material that is shown above the chest should be understood to be inside it. In contrast to western artistic conventions, which would show the chest as a trapezoid due to perspective and foreshortening and which would render most of its contents invisible, the principles of Egyptian art provided an elegant solution and allow all the objects in the chest to be seen. Each item inside is represented without overlapping those around it, so that none of its essential features are obscured. Also, unlike western artistic conventions, the objects are all shown in their correct relative size and without foreshortening. Because this method portrays each object in isolation, all of them can readily be identified. At the top—understood as being on the far side inside the chest—is an animal skin.^[3] Below it are three rows of small cups. On the next row are (moving from left to right): two cups, two bags, and four netjerwy blades (a type of magical tool). Below these are a miniature foreleg of an ox; a tool (?); a plumed feather in the shape of the hieroglyph for “truth;” and a series of adzes, all tools employed in the ritual.5

In Egyptian art, text and image are intimately related. Here, the full meaning of the scene depicted on the stela, and the relationship between its imagery and inscriptions, can only be determined by considering the overall composition of the stela. The scene on the stela illustrates some versions of Spell 1 of the Book of the Dead that are entitled “Spell for carrying out the Opening of the Mouth for the statue of the Osiris … its face oriented southward on the desert sand behind it; to be recited by the Lector Priest while the Sem Priest circles it four times.”^[4] This brief text explains the scene on the stela, for the text at its upper left reads: “Performing the Opening of the Mouth for the Osiris, the Priest of Montu, Lord of Armant, Ramose, justified in the Place of Truth [the necropolis].”^[5] From these texts, the scene becomes clear. The mummy and coffin have been brought to the tomb and they are standing in the sunlight before burial while the priests perform rituals that will reanimate the deceased in the afterlife.6

The texts and images also work together to illustrate the relationship between crafts and funerary rituals. The coffin (and mummy) of the deceased were equated with a statue, a parity that would ensure that the body of the deceased would never perish. During the Opening of the Mouth ritual, the funerary priests acted as craftsmen creating a statue and then, through rituals, animating it to allow it to contain the soul of the individual. The adzes prominently shown on the stela are woodworking tools that the funerary priest touched to the face of the mummy to reanimate it, just as an artisan would use an adze to fashion a statue. One episode of the ritual states: “May the pieces of carpentry be granted to you by Ptah [the patron god of craftsmen], namely the chest provided with its implements.”^[6]7

The actions of the three priests are part of a sequence of rituals that, although separated in time, are shown as if performed simultaneously. The text above the head of the priest holding the nemset jars states: “Words said by the Lector Priest, ‘Go four times around the Osiris, the Chief Priest of Montu, Ramose.’” These instructions relate to the second and third episodes of the Opening of the Mouth ritual that call upon the priest to circle the mummy-statue four times, purifying it with the contents of the nemset jars, just as is shown on the relief. The priest with the censer is enacting episode 7 of the ritual. The text behind him explains the result of the purification and equates the deceased with the imperishable gods: “Your purification is the purification of Horus, and Horus’s purification is your purification; your purification is the purification of Seth, and Seth’s purification is your purification; your purification is the purification of Thoth, and Thoth’s purification is your purification; your purification is the purification of Dewenawy, and Dewenawy’s purification is your purification. Words said four times, ‘be twice pure Osiris-Ramose.’” The priest holding the papyrus conducts another ritual action of the Opening of the Mouth (episodes 26–27) that would have taken place considerably later than the actions of the other priests.8

The lower register preserves two lines of a longer invocation calling upon the deities Osiris, Wennefer, Isis, Anubis, Hathor, Khefethernebes, Atum, and Ptah-Sokar to grant funerary offerings.9

Date of the Stela

The style of the clothing suggests a date of Dynasty 19 or perhaps even Dynasty 20. However, a more precise date can be established because Ramose is also shown in the Theban tomb of the priest Khons, who lived during the reign of Ramesses II in Dynasty 19.^[7] There, as the High Priest of the god Montu, Ramose is depicted walking alongside Montu’s sacred boat as it arrived at Armant.10

The large size of the stela suggests that it may originally have stood in the courtyard of a rock-cut tomb, but there is no record of where Ramose’s tomb was located—whether at Thebes or nearby Armant. The inscription’s description of Ramose as “justified in the Place of Truth” may argue for a Theban context, for the necropolis there bore that name.11

Provenance

The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in Cairo through James Henry Breasted as agent, 1920. 12

Publication History

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 42, 43 (ill.), 124n4.13

Alan R. Schulman, “The Iconographic Theme: ‘Opening of the Mouth’ on Stelae,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 21 (1984): 183, 184, fig. 11.14

Nicole Laneri, ed., “Performing Death: Social Analyses of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean,” Oriental Institute Seminars, no. 3 (Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2007), cover illustration.
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