AEB 97.0674 : "Paper on the object British Museum EA 1512, the top of a single obelisk, crowned with a falcon. The obelisk dates from the Graeco-Roman Period and originates from Sais. On the basis of text parallels from Graeco-Roman temples it has proven possible to reconstruct the contents of the wind and Ba texts, which are largely lost together with the main part of the shaft: after the burial of the deceased gods, Re, Shu, Geb and Osiris in the divine necropolis, their Bas ascend to heaven with the help of the four wind gods. In the sky the four Bas are transfigured and made manifest as stars. The picture panels illustrate the crucial moment from the texts which are displayed on the shaft below them. Following the classical authors, especially the hypothesis of Strabo on the last resting-place of Osiris in the Sacred District to the south of Sais, it seems likely that the obelisk in its former shape was once erected in this enclosure dedicated to the deceased Demiurge, the primeval gods, and Osiris. It would have been a cult object, in which the Sun god and the deceased gods Re, Shu, Geb and Osiris were worshipped." |