It’s a typical funeral marker, depicting the deceased individual in a vibrant way, often, in the case of women, in a household scene. These stelai were carved in relief, and were almost always painted, although the painting doesn’t survive in most cases.
In this stele, a woman reclines on a chair and reaches to touch the lid of an object that is held by a girl whose hairstyle and clothes indicate she is a slave. This is a rather typical trope in funeral stelai, the image of a wealthy adult woman reaching to a servant, and may have reflected her family’s desire for her to retain her status into the afterlife. Other clues to her high status include her snake-bracelets and the elaborate nature of the chair she’s sitting on, which boasts lion-paw legs and eagle-shaped arms.
But what is the object the woman is touching? Many scholars say that it is a shallow chest, with some going so far as interpreting it as a jewelry box or as Pandora's box.
