{
"data": {
"id": 94122,
"accession_number": "1914.669",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Stele of the High Priest of Ptah, Shedsunefertem, 945\u2013924 BCE. Egypt, Third Intermediate (1069\u2013715 BCE), Dynasty 22, reign of Shosheng I (943\u2013922 BCE). Limestone, originally painted and gilded; overall: 86.8 x 78.5 cm (34 3/16 x 30 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust, 1914.669",
"current_location": "107 Egyptian",
"title": "Stele of the High Priest of Ptah, Shedsunefertem",
"creation_date": "945\u2013924 BCE",
"creation_date_earliest": -945,
"creation_date_latest": -924,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Egypt, Third Intermediate (1069\u2013715 BCE), Dynasty 22, reign of Shosheng I (943\u2013922 BCE)"
],
"technique": "limestone, originally painted and gilded",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art",
"collection": "Egypt - New Kingdom",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 86.8 x 78.5 cm (34 3/16 x 30 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.868,
"height_inch": 34,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"width": 0.785,
"width_inch": 30,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 677276,
"title": "Divine Egypt",
"description": "Divine Egypt. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (October 6, 2025-January 19, 2026) https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/divine-egypt.",
"opening_date": "2025-10-06T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Purchased from Khawam Brothers, Cairo, by Lucy Olcott Perkins through Henry W. Kent, April 23, 1913, with 1914.662, 1914.542, and 1914.663",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
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"did_you_know": "The eye and eyebrow of the young sun-god Ra (at center) were once inlaid.",
"description": "This stele of Shedsunefertem, the High Priest of Ptah, is rich in religious symbolism. In the center of the top register is a disk and crescent, originally gilded. At either side a baboon raises its arms in adoration. The Egyptians believed that the jabbering of the baboons at dawn was a hymn of praise to the sun god Ra in a secret language only the king understood. It begins, \"Praising Ra when he shines on the horizon.\" Directly below in the middle register a child god is seated on a lotus flower. In Egyptian mythology the sun arose out of the primeval waters at the dawn of creation in a lotus flower. Winged figures of Maat, goddess of Truth, stand protectively at either side. The damaged figure of the high priest himself, wearing the panther skin and jackal-collar of his office, appears at the far right, worshipping the god Ptah, whose consort, the lioness-headed goddess Sekhmet, appears on the far left. The figures in the bottom register are colleagues who appear here as dependents under the powerful high priest's protection.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60755555"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1914.669-stele-of-the-high-pr"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Williams, Caroline Ransom. \"Stela of a High-Priest of Memphis.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 8/9 (1918): 67-69.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: Front Matter; Mentioned: pp. 67-69",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25136216"
},
{
"citation": "Williams, Caroline Ransom. \"The Egyptian Collection in the Museum of Art at Cleveland, Ohio (Continued).\" The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 5, no. 4 (1918): 279.",
"page_number": "",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/3853580?seq=1"
},
{
"citation": "Moret, Alexandre. The Nile and Egyptian Civilization. London: Kegan Paul, French, Trubner and Co., 1927. p. 202, pl. VII 1.",
"page_number": "",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/nileegyptiancivi00more/page/202/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Tait, G.A.D. \"The Egyptian Relief Chalice.\" The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 49, no. 4 (1963): 134\u20135, fig. 7.",
"page_number": "",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/3855703?seq=2"
},
{
"citation": "Schulman, Alan R. \"Two Unrecognized Monuments of Shedsunefertem.\" Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 39, no. 4 (1980): 308, fn. 8d.",
"page_number": "",
"url": "jstor.org/stable/544334"
},
{
"citation": "Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Boha\u010d. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 258; Mentioned: p. 258-260",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Jurman, Claus. Memphis in der Dritten Zwischenzeit: eine studie zur (selbst-) Repra\u0308sentation von eliten in der 21. und 22. Dynastie. 2020.",
"page_number": "Reproduced; Tafel 114-116, D-060",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Oppenheim, Adela. \"Re.\" In Divine Egypt, edited by Diana Craig Patch and Brendan Hainline, 62-75. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2025.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 71, no. 45",
"url": ""
}
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"creditline": "Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust",
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"athena_id": 94122,
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1914-01-01T00:00:00",
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"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:45:53.065000"
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