Bakhtan Stela (Upper Part)

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by Jan van der Crabben
published on 16 August 2019

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Bakhtan Stela (Upper Part) — This stela shows two symmetrical scenes. On the left, we see a priest offers incense to a barque carrying a statue of "Khonsou-Spellcaster-of-Thebes-and-Chaser-of-Demons". On the right, Ramesses II presents incense to a similar barque named "Khonsou-in-Thebes-Neferhotep".

The inscription beneath tells the tale of how Ramesses II saves his sister in law, Bentrech, princess of Bakhtan, from sickness. He does so by sending her the statue of Khonsou the demon-chaser. Bakhtan corresponds to the Hittite lands. This story mentions the Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty and the marriage of Ramesses II with a daughter of Hattusili II.

This work dates to the 21st dynasty, probably during the reign of Herihor (1073-1064 BCE). Thus this stela tells a tale of the past.

Karnak, Egypt, 21st Dynasty. Paris, Musee du Louvre, C 284.

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About the Author

Jan van der Crabben

Jan is the Founder and CEO of Ancient History Encyclopedia, leading the non-profit company to best fulfil its mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. He holds an MA War Studies from King's College.

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Uploaded by Jan van der Crabben, published on 16 August 2019 under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

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APA Style

Crabben, J. V. D. (2019, August 16). Bakhtan Stela (Upper Part). Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/image/11064/

Chicago Style

Crabben, Jan V. D. "Bakhtan Stela (Upper Part)." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Last modified August 16, 2019. https://www.ancient.eu/image/11064/.

MLA Style

Crabben, Jan V. D. "Bakhtan Stela (Upper Part)." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 16 Aug 2019. Web. 20 Jan 2021.

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