Shabaka Stone

Begin with the worn area at the centre. This inscribed stone was later used for grinding, and that practical reuse cut into the text. The damage is part of the object’s history, even though it has made the earlier writing harder to recover. The stela dates to 710 BC, during the reign of Shabaka, a king of Egypt. Its inscription records a creation account associated with Memphis. The text presents itself as the preservation of an older, damaged composition. Scholars continue to examine the age of that religious account and the claim to have copied it. The date of the surviving stone gives firmer ground than a precise date for every idea in the text. Earl Spencer donated the stone to the Museum. Here you can see a surface that had two very different uses, carrying a religious account and later serving as a grinding tool. Follow the surviving lines out from the damaged centre to see how much writing remains.