Stele - WikiHQ

thumb|260px|Stele N from [[Copán, Honduras, depicting King K'ac Yipyaj Chan K'awiil ("Smoke Shell"), as drawn by Frederick Catherwood in 1839]]

thumb|Stele to the French 8th Infantry Regiment. [[Commons:Category:Battle of Waterloo steles|One of more than half a dozen steles located on the Waterloo battlefield.]]

A stele ( ) or stela ( ) is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. The surface of the stele often has text, ornamentation, or both. These may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted.

Stelae were created for many reasons. Grave stelae were used for funerary or commemorative purposes. Stelae as slabs of stone would also be used as ancient Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers to mark borders or property lines. Stelae were occasionally erected as memorials to battles. For example, along with other memorials, there are more than half-a-dozen steles erected on the battlefield of Waterloo at the locations of notable actions by participants in battle.

A traditional Western gravestone (headstone, tombstone, gravestone, or marker) may technically be considered the modern equivalent of ancient stelae, though the term is very rarely applied in this way. Equally, stele-like forms in non-Western cultures may be called by other terms, and the words "stele" and "stelae" are most consistently applied in archaeological contexts to objects from Europe, the ancient Near East and Egypt, China, and sometimes Pre-Columbian America.

History

thumb|left|The funerary stele of Thraseas and Euandria, BC

Stelae have also been used to publish laws and decrees, to record a ruler's exploits and honors, to mark sacred territories or mortgaged properties, as territorial markers, as the boundary steles of Akhenaton at Amarna, or to commemorate military victories. They were widely used in the ancient Near East, Mesopotamia, Greece, Egypt, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and, most likely independently, in China and elsewhere in the Far East, and, independently, by Mesoamerican civilisations, notably the Olmec and Maya.

thumb|left|Stela of [[Iddi-Sin, King of Simurrum. It dates back to the Old Babylonian Period. From Qarachatan Village, Slemani Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan. Located in the Slemani Museum, Iraq.]]

The large number of stelae, including inscriptions, surviving from ancient Egypt and in Central America constitute one of the largest and most significant sources of information on those civilisations, in particular Maya stelae. The most famous example of an inscribed stela leading to increased understanding is the Rosetta Stone, which led to the breakthrough allowing Egyptian hieroglyphs to be read. An informative stele of Tiglath-Pileser III is preserved in the British Museum. Two steles built into the walls of a church are major documents relating to the Etruscan language.

Standing stones (menhirs), set up without inscriptions from Libya in North Africa to Scotland, were monuments of pre-literate Megalithic cultures in the Late Stone Age. The Pictish stones of Scotland, often intricately carved, date from between the 6th and 9th centuries.

An obelisk is a specialized kind of stele. The Insular high crosses of Ireland and Great Britain are specialized steles. Totem poles of North and South America that are made out of stone may also be considered a specialized type of stele. Gravestones, typically with inscribed name and often with inscribed epitaph, are among the most common types of stele seen in Western culture.

Most recently, in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the architect Peter Eisenman created a field of some 2,700 blank steles. The memorial is meant to be read not only as the field but also as an erasure of data that refer to memory of the Holocaust.

Egypt

thumb|Egyptian hieroglyphs on an Egyptian funerary stela in [[Manchester Museum]]

Egyptian steles (or Stelae, Books of Stone) have been found dating as far back as the First Dynasty of Egypt. These vertical slabs of stone are used as tombstones, for religious usage, and to mark boundaries, and are most commonly made of limestone and sandstone, or harder kinds of stone such as granite or diorite, but wood was also used in later times.), or erected beside tombs. Others stood in isolated positions, such as the Kelashin Stele, and had a commemorative function or served as boundary markers. Although sometimes plain, most bore a cuneiform inscription that would detail the stele's function or the reasons for its erection. The stele from Van's "western niche" contained annals of the reign of Sarduri II, with events detailed yearly and with each year separated by the phrase "For the God Haldi I accomplished these deeds". Some scholars have suggested Urartian steles may have influenced the development of the Armenian khachkar.

Greece

thumb|[[Stele of Arniadas at the Archaeological Museum of Corfu]]

Greek funerary markers, especially in Attica, had a long and evolutionary history in Athens. From public and extravagant processional funerals to different types of pottery used to store ashes after cremation, visibility has always been a large part of Ancient Greek funerary markers in Athens. Regarding stelai (Greek plural of stele), in the period of the Archaic style in Ancient Athens (600 BC) stele often showed certain archetypes of figures, such as the male athlete. Generally their figures were singular, though there are instances of two or more figures from this time period. Moving into the 6th and 5th centuries BC, Greek stelai declined and then rose in popularity again in Athens and evolved to show scenes with multiple figures, often of a family unit or a household scene. One such notable example is the Stele of Hegeso. Typically grave stelai are made of marble and carved in relief, and like most Ancient Greek sculpture they were vibrantly painted. For more examples of stelai, the Getty Museum's published Catalog of Greek Funerary Sculpture is a valuable resource

China

thumb|A [[bixi (mythology)|bixi-born Yan Temple Renovation Stele dated Year 9 of Zhizheng era in Yuan dynasty (AD 1349), in Qufu, Shandong, China]]

thumb|right|200px|Chinese ink rubbings of the 1489 (left) and 1512 (right) steles left by the [[Kaifeng Jews.]]

Steles (Chinese: bēi 碑) have been a major medium of stone inscription in China, the earliest examples dating from the Qin dynasty. Chinese steles are generally rectangular stone tablets upon which Chinese characters are carved intaglio with a funerary, commemorative, or edifying text. They can commemorate talented writers and officials, inscribe poems, portraits, or maps, and frequently contain the calligraphy of famous historical figures.

Chinese steles from before the Tang dynasty are rare: there are a handful from before the Qin dynasty, roughly a dozen from the Western Han, 160 from the Eastern Han, and several hundred from the Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern, and Sui dynasties. During the Han dynasty, tomb inscriptions (, mùzhì) containing biographical information on deceased people began to be written on stone tablets rather than wooden ones.

Steles are found at nearly every significant mountain and historical site in China. The First Emperor made five tours of his domain in the 3rd century BC and had Li Si make seven stone inscriptions commemorating and praising his work, of which fragments of two survive. One of the most famous mountain steles is the high stele at Mount Tai with the personal calligraphy of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang commemorating his imperial sacrifices there in 725.

Horn of Africa

thumb|right|A sword symbol on a stele at [[Tiya]]

The Horn of Africa contains many stelae. In the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Axumites and D'mt before them erected a number of large stelae, which served a religious purpose in pre-Christian times. One of these granite columns is the largest such structure in the world, standing at 90 feet.

Additionally, Tiya is one of nine megalithic pillar sites in the central Gurage Zone of Ethiopia. As of 1997, 118 stele were reported in the area. Along with those in the Hadiya Zone, other Sidamo and Konso stele have been theorized by historians to be of Aksumite origin or related through a common regional culture.

The stelae at Tiya and other areas in central Ethiopia are similar to those on the route between Djibouti City and Loyada in Djibouti. In the latter area, there are a number of anthropomorphic and phallic stelae, which are associated with graves of rectangular shape flanked by vertical slabs. The Djibouti-Loyada stelae are of uncertain age, and some of them are adorned with a T-shaped symbol.

Near the ancient northwestern town of Amud in Somalia, whenever an old site had the prefix Aw in its name (such as the ruins of Awbare and Awbube), it denoted the final resting place of a local saint. Surveys by A.T. Curle in 1934 on several of these important ruined cities recovered various artefacts, such as pottery and coins, which point to a medieval period of activity at the tail end of the Adal Sultanate's reign. Burial sites near Burao likewise feature old stelae.

Notable steles

thumb|right|140px|King [[Ezana of Axum|Ezana's stele at Aksum]]

thumb|right|140px|A victory stele of [[Naram-Sin of Akkad|Naram-Sin, a 23rd-century BC Mesopotamian king.]]

Stele of Vespasian
Stele of Piye
Code of Hammurabi
Gwanggaeto Stele
King Ezana's Stela
Kul Tigin
Lemnos stela
Lapis Niger
Mesha Stele
Naram-Sin
Xi'an Stele
Pig stele of Edessa
Stone of Terpon
The Doctorate steles at the Temple of Literature, Hanoi
The Ram Khamhaeng stele
Ukrainian stone stelae
Batu Tarsilah
In Africa:
Merneptah Stele
Decree of Nectanebo I
Rosetta Stone
Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten
Palermo stone
Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu
The Opa Oranmiyan
Gao-Saney
Burao steles
Stone of the Guanches
In the Western Hemisphere:
Mexico: Tres Zapotes Stela C, Izapa Stela 5, La Mojarra Stela 1
Guatemala: Stela 14 from Piedras Negras
Honduras: Stela H from Copan
Peru: Raimondi Stela

Gallery

File:P1060243 Louvre repas funéraire de la princesse Nefertiabet E15591 rwk.JPG|Princess Nefertiabet's funerary slab stele ( BC) from Egypt's 4th dynasty

File:Grave Stela of Nehemes-Ra-tawy, ca. 760-656 B.C.E. ,37.588E.jpg|Egyptian grave stela of Nehemes-Ra-tawy, –656 BC

File:Anthropomorphic stele no 25, Sion, Petit-Chasseur necropolis 13.jpg|Stele #25 ( BC) from the Petit Chasseur in Sion, Switzerland

File:Statuamenhirlaconi.jpg|A Neolithic Sardinian menhir ( BC) recovered at Laconi and assigned to the Abealzu-Filigosa culture

File:Milkau Oberer Teil der Stele mit dem Text von Hammurapis Gesetzescode 369-2.jpg|The lunette of the Code of Hammurabi ( BC), depicting the king receiving his law from the sun god Shamash

File:Baal thunderbolt Louvre AO15775.jpg|Baal with Thunderbolt ( century BC), an Ugaritic stele from Syria

File:Merenptah Israel Stele Cairo.jpg|The Merneptah Stele ( BC), engraved on the back of a reused stele of Amenhotep III's, with the earliest mention of the name Israel

File:0007MAN-Herma.jpg|An unusually well-preserved Greek herm ( BC), used as a boundary marker and to ward off evil

File:Relief Bendis BM 2155.jpg|A votive stela honoring the Thracian goddess Bendis ( BC), carved at Athens

File:Herma Demosthenes Glyptothek Munich 292.jpg|A herm of Demosthenes, a recreation of the BC original located in the Athenian market

File:Rosetta Stone BW.jpeg|The Rosetta Stone (196 BC), establishing the divine cult of Ptolemy V

File:Buddhist Stela Northern Wei period.jpg|A Buddhist Stele from China, Northern Wei period, built sometime after 583

File:Yamanoue stele.jpg|A rubbing of the Yamanoue Stele (681) in Takasaki, one of three protected steles in Japan

File:Yaxchilan Stela 35.jpg|Stele 35 from Yaxchilan (8th century), depicting Lady Eveningstar, the consort of king Shield Jaguar II

File:Frits-Holm-Chinas-Foremost-Monument-the-Chingchiaopei.png|The Xi'an Stele (781) records the success of the missionary Alopen in Tang China in Chinese and Syriac. It is borne by a Bixi and forbidden to travel abroad.

File:Rodney02.JPG|Rodney's Stone, a slab cross from Early Medieval Scotland

File:Forres sueno.jpg|Sueno's Stone ( century) in Forres, Scotland, displaying efforts at modern preservation of the Pictish stones

File:1348 Mogaoku Stele.jpg|A rubbing of the Stele of Sulaiman, Prince of Xining (1348), bearing the "Om mani padme hum" in six languages: Nepali, Tibetan, Uyghur, 'Phags-pa, Tangut, and Chinese.

File:Gall Trilingual Inscription.jpg|The Galle stele left by Zheng He on Sri Lanka in 1409 with trilingual inscriptions in Chinese, Tamil, and Persian

File:Hero stone (virgal) with old Kannada inscription at the Tarakeshvara temple at Hangal.jpg|Hero stone from 12th century with Old Kannada inscription from the Tarakeshvara Temple at Hangal, Karnataka

File:Tsatsyn Denj Deerstone.jpg|Tsatsyn Denj deerstone, near the Tamir River, Arkhangai Province, Mongolia

File:03-National Museum of Cambodia-nX-1.jpg|The Sambor Inscription, containing the oldest, firmly dated use of "0" as a decimal figure. The date "605 Saka era" (683 AD) is written in Khmer numerals, referring to the year it was made. Kratié province, Cambodia

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Notes

References

Bibliography

Boardman, John, ed. The Cambridge Ancient History, Part 1, 2nd Edition, ()
Collon, Dominique, et al. "Stele." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 3 Jun. 2015. Subscription required
Pool, Christopher A. Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica. Cambridge University Press, 2007 ()
Till, Karen E. The New Berlin: Memory, Politics, Place. University of Minnesota Press, 2005

External links

The Cesnola collection of Cypriot art: stone sculpture, a fully digitized collection catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on steles
Egyptian Stelae in Field Museum of Natural History, documentation of collection 1936