Stele
A stele (, or painted.
Stelae were created for many reasons. Grave stelae were used for funerary or commemorative purposes. Stelae as slabs of stone would also be used as ancient Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers to mark borders or property lines. Stelae were occasionally erected as memorials to battles. For example, along with other memorials, there are more than half-a-dozen steles erected on the battlefield of Waterloo at the locations of notable actions by participants in battle.[1]
A traditional Western gravestone (headstone, tombstone, gravestone, or marker) may technically be considered the modern equivalent of ancient stelae, though the term is very rarely applied in this way. Equally, stele-like forms in non-Western cultures may be called by other terms, and the words "stele" and "stelae" are most consistently applied in
History
Steles have also been used to publish laws and decrees, to record a ruler's exploits and honors, to mark sacred territories or mortgaged properties, as territorial markers, as the boundary steles of
The large number of stelae, including inscriptions, surviving from
Standing stones (
An
Most recently, in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the architect Peter Eisenman created a field of some 2,700 blank steles.[7] The memorial is meant to be read not only as the field, but also as an erasure of data that refer to memory of the Holocaust.
Egypt
Egyptian steles (or Stelae, Books of Stone)[8] have been found dating as far back as the First Dynasty of Egypt. These vertical slabs of stone are used as tombstones, for religious usage, and to mark boundaries,[9] and are most commonly made of limestone and sandstone, or harder kinds of stone such as granite or diorite, but wood was also used in later times.[10][8]
Stele fulfilled several functions. There were votive, commemorative, and liminal or boundary stelae, but the largest group was the tomb stelae. Their picture area showed the owner of the stele, often with his family, and an inscription listed the name and titles of the deceased after a prayer to one, or several, of the gods of the dead and request for offerings. Less frequently, an autobiographical text provided additional information about the individual's life.[8]
In the mastaba tombs of the Old Kingdom (2686 - 2181 BC), stelae functioned as false doors, symbolizing passage between the present and the afterlife, which allowed the deceased to receive offerings. These were both real and represented by formulae on the false door.[8]
Liminal, or boundary, stele were used to mark size and location of fields and the country's borders. Votive stelae were exclusively erected in temples by pilgrims to pay homage to the gods or sacred animals. Commemorative stelae were placed in temples by the pharaoh, or his senior officials, detailing important events of his reign. Some of the most widely known Egyptian stelae include: the Kamose Stelae, recounting the defeat of the Hyksos; the Victory Stele, describing the campaigns of the Nubian pharaoh Piye as he reconquered the country; the Restoration Stele of Tutankhamun (1336 - 1327 BC), detailing the religious reforms enacted after the Amarna period; and the Merneptah Stele, which features the first known historical mention of the Israelites. In Ptolemaic times (332 - 30 BC), decrees issued by the pharaoh and the priesthood were inscribed on stelae in hieroglyphs, demotic script and Greek, the most famous example of which is the Rosetta Stone.[10][8]
Urartu
Greece
Greek funerary markers, especially in Attica, had a long and evolutionary history in Athens. From public and extravagant processional funerals to different types of pottery used to store ashes after cremation, visibility has always been a large part of Ancient Greek funerary markers in Athens. Regarding stelai (Greek plural of stele), in the period of the Archaic style in Ancient Athens (600 BC) stele often showed certain archetypes of figures, such as the male athlete.[14] Generally their figures were singular, though there are instances of two or more figures from this time period.[15] Moving into the 6th and 5th centuries BC, Greek stelai declined and then rose in popularity again in Athens and evolved to show scenes with multiple figures, often of a family unit or a household scene. One such notable example is the Stele of Hegeso. Typically grave stelai are made of marble and carved in relief, and like most Ancient Greek sculpture they were vibrantly painted.[16] For more examples of stelai, the Getty Museum's published Catalog of Greek Funerary Sculpture is a valuable resource[17]
China
Steles (Chinese: bēi
Chinese steles from before the
Erecting steles at tombs or temples eventually became a widespread social and religious phenomenon. Emperors found it necessary to promulgate laws, regulating the use of funerary steles by the population. The
Steles are found at nearly every significant mountain and historical site in China. The
A number of such stone monuments have preserved the origin and history of China's minority religious communities. The 8th-century Christians of Xi'an left behind the Xi'an Stele, which survived adverse events of the later history by being buried underground for several centuries. Steles created by the Kaifeng Jews in 1489, 1512, and 1663, have survived the repeated flooding of the Yellow River that destroyed their synagogue several times, to tell us something about their world. China's Muslim have a number of steles of considerable antiquity as well, often containing both Chinese and Arabic text.
Thousands of steles, surplus to the original requirements, and no longer associated with the person they were erected for or to, have been assembled in Xi'an's Stele Forest Museum, which is a popular tourist attraction. Elsewhere, many unwanted steles can also be found in selected places in Beijing, such as Dong Yue Miao, the Five Pagoda Temple, and the Bell Tower, again assembled to attract tourists and also as a means of solving the problem faced by local authorities of what to do with them. The long, wordy, and detailed inscriptions on these steles are almost impossible to read for most are lightly engraved on white marble in characters only an inch or so in size, thus being difficult to see since the slabs are often 3m or more tall.
There are more than 100,000 surviving stone inscriptions in China. However, only approximately 30,000 have been transcribed or had rubbings made, and fewer than those 30,000 have been formally studied.[21]
Maya stelae
Maya stelae were fashioned by the Maya civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. They consist of tall sculpted stone shafts or slabs and are often associated with low circular stones referred to as altars, although their actual function is uncertain.[25] Many stelae were sculpted in low relief,[26] although plain monuments are found throughout the Maya region.[27] The sculpting of these monuments spread throughout the Maya area during the Classic Period (250–900 AD),[25] and these pairings of sculpted stelae and circular altars are considered a hallmark of Classic Maya civilization.[28] The earliest dated stela to have been found in situ in the Maya lowlands was recovered from the great city of Tikal in Guatemala. During the Classic Period almost every Maya kingdom in the southern lowlands raised stelae in its ceremonial centre.[27]
Stelae became closely associated with the concept of divine kingship and declined at the same time as this institution. The production of stelae by the Maya had its origin around 400 BC and continued through to the end of the Classic Period, around 900, although some monuments were reused in the Postclassic (c. 900–1521). The major city of Calakmul in Mexico raised the greatest number of stelae known from any Maya city, at least 166, although they are very poorly preserved.
Hundreds of stelae have been recorded in the Maya region,[29] displaying a wide stylistic variation.[27] Many are upright slabs of limestone sculpted on one or more faces,[27] with available surfaces sculpted with figures carved in relief and with hieroglyphic text. Stelae in a few sites display a much more three-dimensional appearance where locally available stone permits, such as at Copán and Toniná.[27] Plain stelae do not appear to have been painted nor overlaid with stucco decoration,[30] but most Maya stelae were probably brightly painted in red, yellow, black, blue and other colours.[31]
Cambodia
Khmer inscriptions are a corpus of post-5th century historical texts engraved sometimes on steles, but more generally on materials such as stone and metal ware found in a wide range of mainland Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos) and relating to the Khmer civilization. The study of Khmer inscriptions is known as Khmer epigraphy.
Khmer inscriptions are the only local written sources for the study of ancient Khmer civilization.
More than 1,200 Khmer inscriptions of varying length have been collected. There was an 'explosion' of Khmer epigraphy from the seventh century, with the earliest recorded Khmer stone inscription dating from 612 AD at Angkor Borei.
Ireland
Ogham stones are vertical grave and boundary markers, erected at hundreds of sites in Ireland throughout the first millennium AD, bearing inscriptions in the Primitive Irish language. They have occasionally been described as "steles."[32][33][34]
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa contains many stelae. In the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Axumites erected a number of large stelae, which served a religious purpose in pre-Christian times. One of these granite columns is the largest such structure in the world, standing at 90 feet.[35]
Additionally, Tiya is one of nine megalithic pillar sites in the central Gurage Zone of Ethiopia. As of 1997, 118 stele were reported in the area. Along with the stelae in the Hadiya Zone, the structures are identified by local residents as Yegragn Dingay or "Gran's stone", in reference to Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Ahmad "Gurey" or "Gran"), ruler of the Adal Sultanate.[36]
The stelae at Tiya and other areas in central Ethiopia are similar to those on the route between
Near the ancient northwestern town of Amud in Somalia, whenever an old site had the prefix Aw in its name (such as the ruins of Awbare and Awbube[38]), it denoted the final resting place of a local saint.[39] Surveys by A.T. Curle in 1934 on several of these important ruined cities recovered various artefacts, such as pottery and coins, which point to a medieval period of activity at the tail end of the Adal Sultanate's reign.[38] Among these settlements, Aw Barkhadle is surrounded by a number of ancient stelae.[40] Burial sites near Burao likewise feature old stelae.[41]
Notable steles
- Stele of Vespasian
- Code of Hammurabi
- Gwanggaeto Stele
- King Ezana's Stela
- Kul Tigin
- Lemnos stela
- Lapis Niger
- Mesha Stele
- Naram-Sin
- Xi'an Stele
- Pig stele of Edessa
- Stone of Terpon
- The Doctorate steles at the Temple of Literature, Hanoi
- The Ram Khamhaeng stele
- Ukrainian stone stelae
- In Africa:
- Merneptah Stele
- Rosetta Stone
- Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten
- Palermo stone
- Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu
- The Opa Oranmiyan
- Gao-Saney
- Burao steles
- Stone of the Guanches
- In the Western Hemisphere:
- Mexico: Tres Zapotes Stela C, Izapa Stela 5, La Mojarra Stela 1
- Guatemala: Stela 14 from Piedras Negras
- Honduras: Stela H from Copan
- Peru: Raimondi Stela
Gallery
This section contains an unencyclopedic or excessive gallery of images. |
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Princess4th dynasty
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Egyptian grave stela of Nehemes-Ra-tawy, c. 760–656 BC
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The lunette of the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BC), depicting the king receiving his law from the sun god Shamash
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Thename Israel
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An unusually well-preservedward off evil
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A votive stela honoring theAthens
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AAthenian market
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ThePtolemy V
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A Buddhist Stele from China, Northern Wei period, built sometime after 583
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Shield Jaguar II
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TheBixi and forbidden to travel abroad.
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Rodney's Stone, a slab cross from Early Medieval Scotland
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Pictish stones
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AChinese.
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funerary stelae) at the Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery, Newport, Rhode Island. Typical inscriptions include the names of the deceased interred under the stones. c. 18th century and later.
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A disc shaped gravestone or hilarri in Bidarray, western Pyrenees, Basque Country, featuring typical geometric and solar forms, as it was the custom since the period previous to Roman times
See also
- Cantabrian stelae
- Headstone
- Kurgan stelae
- Monumental inscription
- Obelisk
- Runestone
- Stećci
- Stele of the Vultures
Notes
- ^ Anglicized plural steles (/ˈstiːliːz/ STEE-leez); Greek plural stelai (/ˈstiːlaɪ/ STEE-lye), from Greek στήλη, stēlē. The Greek plural is written στήλαι, stēlai, but this is only rarely encountered in English.
References
- ^ Commons:Category:Battle of Waterloo steles; Timmermans, D. (7 March 2012). "Waterloo Campaign". The British monuments.
- ^ Collon
- ^ Memoirs By Egypt Exploration Society Archaeological Survey of Egypt 1908, p. 19
- M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol 3, The University of California Press1980, pp. 66ff) or Shalmaneser's stela at Saluria (Boardman, op. cit., p. 335)
- ^ Pool, op. cit., p. 265
- ^ Pool, op. cit., p. 277
- ^ Till (2005): 168.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4351-4654-9.
- ^ Dunn, Jimmy. "The Stelae of Ancient Egypt". Tour Egypt. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
- ^ a b Allen, Thomas George (1936). "Egyptian Stelae in Field Museum of Natural History". Biodiversity Heritage Library. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
- ^ a b G. Azarpay, Urartian Art and Artifacts, 1968, p32.
- ^ C. Maranci, Vigilant Powers: Three Churches of Early Medieval Armenia, 2015, p177-182.
- ^ C. Maranci, Vigilant Powers: Three Churches of Early Medieval Armenia, 2015, footnote 311 on page 198.
- ^ Caskey, L. D. "An Archaic Greek Grave Stele in Boston." American Journal of Archaeology 15.3 (1911): 293. CrossRef. Web.
- ^ Robinson, Edward. "An Archaic Greek Grave Monument." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 8.5 (1913): 94. CrossRef. Web.
- ^ Campbell, Gordon. The Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art and Architecture. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.
- ^ Grossman, Janet Burnett. Greek Funerary Sculpture : Catalogue of the Collections at the Getty Villa. Los Angeles: JPaul Getty Museum, 2001. Print.
- ^ Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A Manual (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard-Yenching Institute, 2000): 436.
- ^ Wilkinson (2000): 436-437.
- ^ "The Stele of Mount Hua Temple at The West Alp". Vincent's Calligraphy. Retrieved 2017-05-16.
- ^ a b c Wilkinson (2000): 437.
- ^ de Groot, Jan Jakob Maria (1892), The Religious System of China, vol. II, Brill Archive, pp. 451–452.
- ^ a b Wilkinson (2000): 438.
- ^ Martin & Grube 2000, p. 113.
- ^ a b Miller 1999, p. 9.
- ^ Fuente et al. 1999, p. 187.
- ^ a b c d e Stuart 1996, p. 149.
- ^ Stewart 2009, p. 8.
- ^ Stuart 1996, p. 158.
- ISBN 9781476604862– via Google Books.
- ^ elisabetta. "connemara.irish". www.connemara.irish. Archived from the original on 2017-10-26. Retrieved 2017-10-25.
- ISBN 9780486319773– via Google Books.
- ISBN 978-1598846546.
- ISBN 4879749761. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
- doi:10.3406/ethio.1987.931. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-56902-103-3.
- ^ G.W.B. Huntingford, "The Town of Amud, Somalia", Azania, 13 (1978), p. 184
- ISBN 978-1-84162-371-9.
- ^ "National Museums". Somali Heritage and Archaeology. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
Bibliography
- Boardman, John, ed. The Cambridge Ancient History, Part 1, 2nd Edition, (ISBN 978-0-521-22496-3)
- Collon, Dominique, et al. "Stele." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 3 Jun. 2015. Subscription required
- OCLC 41659173.
- Pool, Christopher A. Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica. ISBN 978-0-521-78312-5)
- Sharer, Robert J.; Loa P. Traxler (2006). The Ancient Maya (6th ed.). Stanford, California, US: OCLC 57577446.
- Stewart, Daniel Moroni (2009). Parentage Statements and Paired Stelae: Signs of Dynastic Succession for the Classic Maya (PDF) (Master's thesis). Provo, Utah, US: Brigham Young University. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
- S2CID 193661049.
- Till, Karen E. The New Berlin: Memory, Politics, Place. University of Minnesota Press, 2005
- Wilkinson, Endymion (2000), Chinese History: A Manual (2nd ed.), Cambridge, Massachusetts: ISBN 0-674-00249-0.
External links
- The Cesnola collection of Cypriot art: stone sculpture, a fully digitized collection catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on steles
- Egyptian Stelae in Field Museum of Natural History, documentation of collection 1936