Stele of dedicated to Amun-Re by Baki
This round-topped stele of the foreman Baki is carved in low relief and painted in several colors. The pictorial plane is divided into two registers, the upper one containing two rams facing each other.
The animals, with cobras rising on their foreheads, wear tall headdresses composed of two tall plumes with a solar disk at the center.
Between them is a small offering table with lotus flowers. The mirror image hieroglyphic inscription refers to the rams and reveals their divine nature as that of Amun-Re. In the register below, foreman Baki is shown in the pose of adoration.
Baki was the son of the workman Unnefer and his wife Maia and lived in Deir el-Medina, where he organized the team of workmen who were engaged in the construction of tombs in the royal necropolis. He was married to Taysen, with whom he had five sons and six daughters.
The tomb of Baki and his family lies in the southern part of the necropolis of Deir el-Medina. The burial, already looted in antiquity, was explored by the French archaeological mission in 1917 and 1927.
Some fragments of the Book of the Dead were found still in situ in the tomb, as were some painted clay ushabtis, the lower part of a small, seated statue inscribed with Baki’s name, potsherds, and a carved and inscribed doorframe.
To these finds can be added some objects that became part of the Drovetti collection in the early 1800s: the fragments of the Book of the Dead, a wooden ushabti for Baki, and three for his wife Taysen.
New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, reigns of Seti I and Ramesses II, ca. 1290-1213 BC. Painted limestone, from Deir el-Medina, Thebes. Now in the Egyptian Museum of Turin. C. 1549
