Stela for Pashed “The Blessed Spirit of Re”
This limestone stela belonged to Pashed, one of the craftsmen of Deir el-Medina, the village whose inhabitants built and decorated the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It is an example of what scholars call an akh iqer en Re, literally, “the excellent spirit of Re”.
Such stelae were placed in domestic shrines, often in small wall niches within the houses of the living. There, family members made offerings and petitions to their departed loved ones, believing the deceased, now radiant in the afterlife, could intercede with the gods on their behalf.
Through this modest yet moving monument, we glimpse the private religion of ordinary Ancient Egyptians, including the daily dialogue between the living and the dead. Pashed, once a craftsman under the sun’s heat, was transformed in death into a “blessed spirit of Re”, a luminous intermediary between earth and the divine. In him, the family found both memory and protection; a voice in eternity that still listened to the living.
Deir el-Medina
Nestled in the desert hills west of Thebes, Deir el-Medina was the home of Ancient Egypt’s most skilled artisans; the painters, sculptors, and stonecutters who created the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings. Each man bore the proud title “Servant in the Place of Truth”, meaning he worked on the secret sepulchres of pharaohs.
Workers Strike at Deir el-Medina
Pashed, whose stela survives here, was likely one of these craftsmen, perhaps a draftsman, sculptor, or overseer in the royal workshops. His family would have lived in one of the narrow mudbrick houses that lined the village’s single street, surrounded by household shrines and the voices of generations who carved eternity into the cliffs. In death, as in life, Pashed’s devotion to the divine sun endured, his stela proclaiming him a “Blessed Spirit of Re”, one who still answered the prayers of those he left behind.
Summary:
Limestone Stela for Pashed: “The Blessed Spirit of Re”
New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, c. 1292–1191 B.C.
From Deir el-Medina, Thebes. Museo Egizio. Cat. 1570
