Today, we use tombstones to mark graves and commemorate our dead. In the ancient world this was achieved through the creation of steles. A stele is a stone slab, usually decorated in relief and inscribed, that honored the death of an individual. Three ancient civilizations that had implemented the use of the stele were the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. In comparing an example from each civilization, it is possible to see the evolution of the stele from one period to another and the different influences each civilization had on a single element.
The Egyptians used numerous methods to honor the dead. Wealthy Egyptians, especially officials and priest, often had steles placed near their tombs. Steles contained an individuals name, position/rank, and the epithets of the deceased along with a funerary prayer (Gee 224). One example of a Funerary Stele during the period of the First Intermediate was that of an official named Dendereh (ca. 2150 BCE, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology). The stele depicts Tjaunty on the far left of the rectangular slab and the other two-thirds of the stele are reserved for inscriptions of hieroglyphs. The depiction of Tjaunty stele portrays numerous characteristics of the Egyptian style. The purpose of the Egyptian style was to symbolize the human form in the clearest and most complete way. The head is shown in profile but with the eye in a frontal position. The reason for this is that the head is more distinct from the profile position; the eyes, on the other hand, are more representative from the frontal view. The shoulders are presented frontally with the waist, hips, legs, and feet in profile. On Tjaunty's funerary stele, he is presented in this very distinct way and is shown with the symbols of his position as an official. This is known because Tjaunty's right hand is holding the same staff as in Hesy-ra's right hand in the Portrait Panel of Hesy-ra (Janson and Janson 44).
