Notes

Tucked away in the north end of room 4, among the collections in the
British Museum’s Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, is a little known
antiquity of Egypt from the 25th Dynasty: a stela known as the Shabaka
Stone.2
This obscure stone and its contents were a mystery for nearly one hundred years after its arrival to the museum, before being deciphered in 1901 by
the first American Egyptologist, James Henry Breasted. After examining the
stone thoroughly and painstakingly copying the inscription by hand, Breasted
subsequently offered the first translation and interpretation of the text.3
It
took many years though—and several scholars—to work through details of
various aspects of the stone, a process Breasted merely set in motion.4
Yet, even
though a good understanding of this relic has been established, according to the
most recent researcher, work on the stone is far from being completed.5
What
follows is intended as an introductory treatment of this fascinating stela—both
the stone itself and its contents—with remarks about its origin and history, its
composition, physical measurements and surface layout, and an interpretation
of the inscription it bears along with a brief explication of its importance and
significance both then and now.