Pottery offering tray
- Accession Number
- W481
- Current Location
- House of Death (ground floor), Offerings case
- Object Type
- Religious or cult object, Offering tray
- Periods
- First Intermediate Period to Middle Kingdom
- Material
- Pottery
- Provenance
- Egypt
- Measurements
- Length: 300mm | Width: 215mm | Height: 50mm
- Number of Elements
- 1
Licensing details
- Description
-
A red pottery offering tray in a sub rectangular shape with two water channels. The head of ox, four loaves of bread, a trussed calf, a foreleg, radishes, and a container with four bowls are modelled as offerings. This object was part of Rustafjaell collection purchased by Wellcome in 1906. Trays such as these were placed above the grave of the deceased. It is thought that water would be poured over the tray and a 'spell' recited. The water then would trickle over the pottery food on the (drainage channels are evident on some trays) tray and down onto the grave. The tray would thus provide food for the dead. Such trays usually date from the First Intermediate Period to the Middle Kingdom.
- Bibliography
-
Kilian, Andrea 2012. Pottery offering trays: general observations and new material from Asyut. In Kahl, Jochem, Mahmoud El- Khadragy, Ursula Verhoeven, and Andrea Kilian (eds), Seven seasons at Asyut: first results of the Egyptian-German cooperation in archaeological fieldwork. Proceedings of an international conference at the University of Sohag, 10th–11th of October, 2009, 105–118. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Mi, Filippo 2020. Ceramic Offering Trays in the Museo Egizio, Turin: Establishing Typologies and Locating Unprovenanced Specimen, Rivista del Museo Egizio 4, 91–121. Available at: https://rivista.museoegizio.it/article/ceramic-offering-trays-in-the-museo-egizio-turin-establishing-typologies-and-locating-unprovenanced-specimens/
- Audio
-
- Other Identity
- 671 (rectangular serrated label)
- Previous Owners
- Robert de Rustafjaell (1859–1943) | Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853–1936)
- Acquisition
- Long-term loan, The Wellcome Trust (15 Feb 1971)
- Last modified: 03 Mar 2022