Banishment Stela
Unknown · Year 25 of a Twenty-first Dynasty reign (Pinedjem I, Amenemope or Psusennes I), c. 1064-980 BC
A tall man in a pleated shirt and kilt, a leopard skin over his shoulder and a sceptre in his hand, presents offerings to Amun, the great god of Karnak. The dress marks him as a high priest, and the text names him: Menkheperre, high priest of Amun at Thebes. The stone is dark diorite, and the signs are cut in sunk relief so that they read as sharp shadows under raking light. Find the date near the top of the inscription, year twenty five of a king of the Twenty-first Dynasty, and the hymn that opens the ceremony.
What follows is the record of an oracle. Menkheperre came south to Thebes at a moment of unrest and put questions to Amun in the temple courtyard. The god approved him as high priest and then agreed to something remarkable: the men banished to the oases of the Western Desert after earlier troubles were pardoned and allowed home, and the god promised that no one would be exiled in that way again. The stone was discovered at Karnak in 1860, drawn at once by Auguste Mariette, and sent to the Louvre by Gaston Maspero in 1884.
Did You Know? The god was asked his questions in public, and the stela records his answers as nods of the statue carried by the priests.
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