INSCRIPTIONS ON STELAE OF THE GENERAL KASA. TRANSLATIONS AND HISTORICAL COMMENTARY

The present article contains a reproduction and a full translation of hieroglyphic inscriptions on 4 stelae from the lost tomb of general Kasa at Saqqara (XIX Dyn.). The publication of inscriptions on the stelae includes a short description of images and sacred symbols carved on them. The spells inscribed on these stelae are mainly the extracts from Chapter 151 of the Book of the Dead. The unique peculiarity of stelae is the shallow niches carved in the form of objects intended for the magical protection of the dead in his tomb: a mummyform figurine, a torch, a statuette of a jackal Anubis and a djed-pillar. The author touches also a question of the stelae original location inside the tomb itself. As the present location of Kasa’ tomb is unknown the layout of stelae in the tomb’s decoration program remains hypothetical. The comparison with private funeral complexes of the New Kingdom in Thebes and Memphis let us to state that the stelae of Kasa are an ensemble which has not known parallels.

Ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptian stelae, Egyptian language, ancient Egyptian religion, Book of the Dead, epigraphy