This upper part of a stela of Seti I with a scene in fine sunk relief shows the god Amen-Ra offering a scimitar or khepesh-sword, symbolic of divine strength, to the king, who smites with the sword a group of Nubian captives, held by their feathered headdresses in his left hand, which also holds a staff. It almost certainly commemorates the campaign of Sety's, Year 8 of his rule (1286 BC), against 'the enemies of the land of Irem'.

 

Seti is described as 'slaying the vile Irem'. The location of the land of Irem has been much disputed and is still uncertain but it probably covered a territory which included the Berber Shendi Reach of the Nile and the Northern Butana - too far south to be permanently conquered and occupied by the Egyptians, but just within reach of punitive expeditions.