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Offering tray

The baked clay trays here displayed were probably used as actual offering tables. They have internal divisions and a raised edge which recalls the girdle wall of the typical courtyard of the Egyptian house; they are indeed also known as “soul houses”. Separately manufactured models of funerary offerings – loaves, fishes, cow heads and legs, vegetables – were placed in the middle of the tray; the channels presumably served the purpose of draining out liquid offerings poured directly on the tray.

Suppl. 14946
Clay / Clay
28.5 cm x 23.5 cm x 5 cm
2118–1980 BCE
First Intermediate Period
Asyut
Excavation Ernesto Schiaparelli, 1911–1913
Museum / Floor 2 / Room 04 / Vetrina 02
Museo Egizio