Stela of HqA-ib

Broad rectangular stela with text field occupying the right half, and figures of owner and wife before offerings occupying the left half. The text comprises 1 horizontal and 6 verti-cal lines of incised hieroglyphs of varying depth and size (Inscription A); hieroglyphic in-scriptions (B-C) are also inserted at the top of the scene of offerings. The main figure is of the owner standing and holding in one hand a long staff; he wears a short plaited wig with tied headband, a collar of three rows, and a plain kilt knotted at the waist, with bull's tail hanging between his legs. Red pigment remains on the neck, downward arm and legs. Behind him stands his wife, one hand embracing his chest, the other hanging by her side and marking part of the compositional border; she wears a long closely-fitting dress and plain collar, and has a striated wig extending behind her to elbow length and visible be-tween arm and torso. At a smaller scale, in front of the owner's face, stands a figure of a man proffering a hemispherical cup. In the upper right corner of the scene is a stylized ta-ble of offerings with on each side three reed hieroglyphs facing outwards; below this is a rectangular table supporting three sealed rounded vessels, and at the bottom are shown two legs of meat and a bird with outstretched wings. Red pigment remains on the meat legs, and in the seated man hieroglyph beside them. The red pigment was reported by LANDA [1966, 106] to have been analyzed, and found to be ochre; the yellow ochre and white gypsum also reported there are not identifiable on the stela surface.