Lunette (stele)

Stele, with Decree of Nectanebo I. (Lunette of the top 1/3 of stele.)

The lunette spatial region in the upper portion of stelas, became common for steles as a prelude to a stele's topic. Its major use was from ancient Egypt in all the various categories of steles: funerary, Victory Steles, autobiographical, temple, votive, etc.

The lunettes are most common from ancient Egyptian steles, as not only is the topic of the stele presented, but honorific gods, presenters, individuals, etc. are previewed, and often with Egyptian hieroglyphic statements.

The main body of the stele is then presented below, often separated with a horizontal line (register), but not always. In Egyptian steles, many have horizontal lines of hieroglyphs; often the lunette will contain shorter vertical statements in hieroglyphs, sometimes just names of the individuals portrayed, hieroglyphs in front, or behind the individual.

19th Dynasty Egypt, post Amarna

Personal votive stela.

From the post-Amarna period onwards, many personal stelas made exhortations to the deities. Stelas to specific gods: "were erected to intervene personally with the local god, often to seek justice or offer an explanation for things that had gone wrong in their lives. The deceased is shown kneeling, holding up his hands in prayer, ....." Some of the personal votive stelas had ears (hieroglyphs), to represent the gods listening to the supplicant.

Ancient Eyptian gallery

• Museo archeologico di Firenze, Museo Egizio, stele del sacerdote Gedhor (età tolemaica).JPG

  Example of Lunette with Wings, (filling the semicircle top of stele)

• Luxor temple46.JPG

  Lunette of upper Ancient Egyptian stele, filled with vertical registers of hieroglyphs

• Stele of Amenhotep I.jpg
• 

  Twin steles of Decree of Nectanebo I, for Nectanebo I

• 

  Ancient Egypt stele (a snake aficionado)

• Egypte louvre 269 stele.jpg

  (minor upper lunette)
  Deeply incised, bas-relief main body of stele

Non-Egyptian stele gallery

• Victory stele of Naram Sin 9064.jpg

  Upper scene from Naram-Sin of Akkad's stele

References

• Hobson, The World of the Pharaohs: a Complete Guide to Ancient Egypt, Christine Hobson, c 1997, Thames and Hudson, {softcover, ISBN 0-500-27560-2}