'Writing-board stelae' with Sokar-formula: a preliminary account.

Nearly one century ago in the Theban necropolis (Asasif-Deir el-Bahari area) the excavations by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and by the Earl of Carnarvon-H. Carter team, brought to light a few characteristic wooden stelae, which show a Painted decoration and a formula, in hieratic writing, where the falcon god Sokar and his bark are envisaged as rescuer of worthy people, accompanying them to 'justification' in the other world. These panel stelae are collected and described -some for the first time-, and their characteristic formula as well. Additional pieces are presented in order to try to understand whether they are related with those special panel stelae and their religious meaning. The article is completed by a note by G. Miniaci: Note on the archaeological context of Tomb C 37, Asasif (pp. 228-233); by a long Bibliography, pp. 233-235, and by five colour plates, XXVI-XXX.