From Offering List to Control System: A Reinterpretation of the Stela of Princess Nefertiabet

The so-called "Stela of Nefertiabet" (Louvre E 15591), dated around 2500 BCE and traditionally classified as a "pancarte d'offrandes," has long been interpreted as a funerary object listing offerings for the deceased. This study proposes an alternative reading: the right-hand portion of the relief is not merely a list but represents a cyclic process diagram. Based on iconographic, semantic, and systems-theoretical analysis, the depicted elements-birds, baskets, counting marks, growth phases, and spindle-are understood as symbolic components of a cybernetic control loop. The central figure, Princess Nefertiabet, is not a passive recipient of offerings but acts as a regulating force in a visualized system of order. The reading integrates ancient Egyptian cosmological principles such as Maat, Neheh (cyclical time), and Djet (linear duration), expanding the Louvre's official interpretation with an interdisciplinary framework spanning Egyptology, semiotics, and systems theory.