Funerary Stela of Kha

This stela was in Turin 82 years before anyone found Kha's tomb. It comes from his funerary chapel, a small mud-brick pyramid at the northern end of the Deir el-Medina cemetery, where it stood in a niche in the back wall. Around 1818 it was taken out, damaging the wall, and bought by agents of Bernardino Drovetti, a Piedmontese collector who had been French consul in Egypt. It reached Turin with his collection in 1824.

In the upper scene Kha raises his hands before Osiris, god of the dead, and Anubis, the jackal-headed god of embalming, who sit back to back. Below, Kha and Merit sit with a small child before a table piled with offerings, while their son Amenemopet stands on the far side and officiates. The two lines at the bottom call on Amun, Ra, Ra-Horakhty and Osiris to grant the couple food and drink.

Their burial itself lay about 25 metres away, cut into the foot of the cliff and covered by debris, and it stayed sealed until 1906.