World Museum, Liverpool

The World Museum has extensive collections covering archaeology, ethnology and the natural and physical sciences. Key exhibition areas include Astronomy, Space and Time; Human History; and Natural History.

A Tour of the World Museum

Stela of Nesshutefnut
Stela of Hotep and Khnumu

Stela of Hotep and Khnumu

This “Stela of Hotep and Khnumu” is 4,000 years old and has survived intact and has six rows of finely carved hieroglyphs. The text provides the name of two brothers, Khnumu and Hotep, and both are described as stewards. The text also names their mother and their grandfather.

The register on the bottom of the stela shows three men walking, all carrying a walking stick in their right-hand and a kherep-scepter in their left hand. There were various types of scepters in Egypt that designated different powers. The kherep pictured here was probably a symbol of their office. Two of the men are Khnumu and Hotep, and the central figure, with a small beard, is an ancestor.

Stela of Hotep and Khnumu

Name: Stela of Hotep and Khnumu
Date: 1985 BC – 1795 BC (Dynasty 12) about
Culture: Egyptian, Middle Kingdom
Material: Granite
Providence: Egypt
Dimensions: 950 mm x 570 mm x 350 mm x 414 kg
Museum: World Museum

Stela of Nesshutefnut

The “Stela of Nesshutefnut” is a wooden stela mounted on two plinths covered with white gesso and finely decorated in red, blue, green, and black. In the top third of the stela are depicted two figures of Anubis as a jackal. In the middle third of the stela is the deceased, Nesshutefnut, on the right is making an offering to seven deities. On the bottom, third is an inscription, in six lines. On top of the stela is a Bâ, which is depicted as a human-headed bird flying out of the tomb to join with the Ka in the afterlife.

The “Stela of Nesshutefnut” was found at Hissayeh in Upper Egypt during excavations undertaken there in 1905 of a rock-cut tomb. These excavations also uncovered the mummy and coffin of Nesshutefnut in the same tomb.