The Decree of Nectanebo I was issued by Pharaoh

Nectanebo I Nectanebo I (Egyptian: ; grc-gre, Νεκτάνεβις ; died 361/60 BCE) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, founder of the last native dynasty of Egypt, the 30th. Name Nectanebo's Egyptian personal name was Nḫt-nb.f, which means "the strong ...

of the

30th Dynasty The Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXX, alternatively 30th Dynasty or Dynasty 30) is usually classified as the fifth Dynasty of the Late Period of ancient Egypt. It was founded after the overthrow of Nepherites II in 380 BC by Nectane ...

of Ancient Egypt. It regards payments to the local temple, and was recorded on two

steles A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek language, Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ...

. The location of the temple was near the

Canopic branch The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to ...

of the

Nile River The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...

, in the eastern

Nile Delta The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, ...

. Accordingly, steles were erected at two locations as statements to curry political favor with the priesthood, and possibly the populace. The twin steles are identical in 14 columns of hieroglyphs except in column 13, where the stele's location is named. The steles were erected shortly after Nectanebo came to power, ca 380 BC.

Stele description

The stele's purpose was to use a 10 percent portion of the waterway-use tax (unspecified import tax) for the services of the priests in charge of the temples of the goddess

Neith Neith ( grc-koi, Νηΐθ, a borrowing of the Demotic (Egyptian), Demotic form egy, nt, likely originally to have been nrt "she is the terrifying one"; Coptic language, Coptic: ⲛⲏⲓⲧ; also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an early ancien ...

. A finely engraved

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...

adorns the upper third of the steles; the engravings and hieroglyphs are all incised in moderate sunken

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

. The lunette focusses on two versions of the goddess Neith, being offered a food offering on the right, and a

usekh collar As early as the Old Kingdom (circa 2670–2195 B.C.), Egyptian artisans fashioned images of gods, kings, and mortals wearing broad collars made of molded tubular and teardrop beads. The Usekh or Wesekh is a personal ornament, a type of broad col ...

on the left, by the presenter Nectanebo.

History of the steles

The first stele, the Stele of Naukratis was uncovered at

Naukratis Naucratis or Naukratis (Ancient Greek: , "Naval Command"; Egyptian: , , , Coptic: ) was a city and trading-post in ancient Egypt, located on the Canopic (western-most) branch of the Nile river, south-east of the Mediterranean sea and the city o ...

in 1899, and was subsequently translated. Only recently, its twin stele was recovered from the underwater site of

Heracleion Heracleion (Ancient Greek: ), also known by its Egyptian name Thonis ( Ancient Egyptian: ; cop, Ⲧϩⲱⲛⲓ , ; Ancient Greek: ) and sometimes called Thonis-Heracleion, was an ancient Egyptian port city located near the Canopic Mouth of ...

, an ancient Egyptian city that was discovered by archaeologists in 2000. Heracleion was also located on the Canopic branch of the Nile. Herakleion is also mentioned on the steles.Naukratis: a city and trading port in Egypt
British Museum

References

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Bibliography

M. Lichtheim, "The Naucratis Stela Once Again," in J. H. Johnson and E. F. Wente (eds.), ''Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes, January 12, 1977'' (Chicago 1976), 139-47. http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/saoc/saoc39.html J. Yoyotte, "An Extraordinary Pair of Twins: The Steles of the Pharaoh Nektanebo I," in F. Goddio and M. Clauss (eds.), ''Egypt's Sunken Treasures'' (Munich 2006), 316-23. S. v Bomhard,"The Decree of Saïs. Underwater Archaeology in the Canopic Region in Egypt". Oxford Center for Maritime Archaeology 7, (Oxford 2013).

External links

Stele of Naukratis, being retrieved. (Plus ''synoptic write-up'')2001 project 'Sunken City', the Canopic Region

4th-century BC steles 1899 archaeological discoveries Nile Delta Egyptian Museum Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt Decrees