W921
This statue is important because it is one of the few pieces from Saft el-Henna. It shows the priest of Sopdu, Iba. Sopdu was a solar god, associated with the sun rising in the east.
This piece dates to the Saite Period (664-525 BC).
The inscription is on 5 lines and reads from right to left:
1.
Htp-di-(nsw) nTrw imy Hwt-nbs di.w prt-xrw kAw Apdw xt nb nfr wab anxw nTr i(m)
An offering which the king gives to the gods who are in Hutnebes (Saft el-Henna in the delta), that they may give invocation offerings of bread and beer, meat and fowl, everything good and pure on which a god lives
2.
…m kA inAxw ptH wn xnm(t) Hr-wr SAa m xpr
(for) the ka of the revered one ptH wn (‘Creator of Light’, a title often associated with the priests of the cult of Sopdu at Saft el-Henna), nurse of Horus (indicating Horus as a child god)
3.
…[xnst] sA snw IbA sA m i-inn Ra-ms(w)
Of the second phyle, Iba, son of the mi nn (having the same title as that previously mentioned, i.e ditto) Ramose
4.
…Hm-nTr wHm Hr IAbbt sA Mwt sA mi-nn sS
…the whm priest of Horus of the East( an epithet of Sopdu), son of Mut mi-nn (having the same title as that previously mentioned, i.e. ditto) scribe
5.
…Ra-ms(w) ir(w) m mwt wfH(?) Spd(w) nb IAbtt nb r …
….born of his mother, iHytof Sopdu, Lord of the East, Lord….
Further Reading
Leahy, Anthony, ‘A Late Period block statuette from Saft el-Henna’ in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 76, 1990, 194-196
Other items associated with priests in the Egypt Centre