What is a stele?
A stele (also stela, plural stelae) is an upright, free-standing slab or pillar, usually of stone and occasionally of wood, carrying an inscription or relief. It serves as a gravestone, memorial, boundary marker or a way of putting a text on public display. The word comes from the Greek stēlē, a standing stone.
Stelae go back to antiquity. Grave stelae showing the deceased were common in Egypt and Greece, and in Mesopotamia laws were carved into them: the law stele of Hammurabi is in the Louvre. Today you see stelae as memorials in public spaces, as grave monuments and as name or information pillars at entrances.
Recognising it
- Taller than it is wide, free-standing and not part of a building.
- Flat or pillar-shaped, with text or images on one or more faces.
- Different from an obelisk, which is four-sided and tapers to a pyramid-shaped tip.
In practice
- Found it below frost depth. A stele is tall and narrow and can lean or topple. Set it on a concrete foundation taken below the local frost depth.
- Fix it with stainless steel. Join stele and base with stainless dowels or anchors. Ordinary steel rusts, expands and can split the stone.
- Have larger pieces designed. A heavy stele in a public place can fall on someone. Let a structural engineer or stonemason specify the foundation and fixings.
- Choose stone for weathering. Granite and bluestone are very durable outdoors. Soft limestones and some sandstones weather faster and lose fine lettering sooner.
- Clean gently. Water, a soft brush and if needed a neutral cleaner. No acid on limestone or marble (it dissolves the stone) and no pressure washer, which damages the surface and the lettering.
- Check the rules for memorials. Cemeteries set their own requirements for size and fixing.
Common mistake: fixing a stele with galvanised or plain steel pins. Years later the steel rusts, swells and cracks the stone.
Related terms
- Obelisk
- Bas-relief
- Limestone
- Natural stone maintenance
- Frost line
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