Lunette (stele)

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Lunette (stele) is the curved upper part of an Egyptian stele. It usually introduces the stele’s topic and was used in many kinds of steles, such as funerary, victory, autobiographical, temple, and votive stones. The lunette often shows gods, the people presenting the stele, or the deceased, with brief hieroglyphic inscriptions that preview what the stele is about. The main text sits below, often separated by a horizontal line called a register, though not always. In many steles the lunette contains short inscriptions or the names of those shown, and sometimes hieroglyphs in front of or behind the figures. In later periods, after the Amarna era, many personal votive steles urged the gods to intervene in daily life, with the deceased shown kneeling in prayer. Some steles include ear symbols to suggest that the gods are listening. These artifacts come from ancient Egypt, roughly from 3150 BC to 30 BC.