A gift from the second Earl Spencer (1758-1834) to the British Museum, in 1805, the Shabako Stone is a basalt slab that mentions the Nubian, 25th dynasty Pharaoh Shabako (r. c.712-698 B.C.), for whom it is named. It is thought to have been written c. 700 B.C.
The Shabako Stone is inscribed with the Ptah-cosmogony (Memphite Theology), some of which may refer to the 3rd millennium B.C. version. In the Ptah section of the stone, Ptah first creates the gods and then the living things in the cosmos.
On the left side of the Shabako Stone there are the stories of the peace made between Egyptian gods Seth and his nephew Horus, and of Osiris' body washing ashore in Memphis, where he was buried.
The Shabako Stone claims the information is copied from an earlier, worm-eaten papyrus. It was placed in the temple of Ptah in Memphis, but was subsequently re-used as a millstone, which damaged the inscriptions.
The text of the Shabako Stone was first published in 1837, by S. Sharpe. The first published translation came in 1902, by J.H. Breasted.
Shabako Stone Dimensions
Height: 66,000 cm
Width: 137,000 cm
References:
- The Shabako Stone
- "Ptah, Creator of the Gods: Reconsideration of the Ptah Section of the Denkmal," by Ragnhild Bjerre Finnestad. Numen (1976)
- Shabaka Stone
