A red pottery rectangular offering tray, which is possibly from Esna. This item has a raised central elongated area and two indentations each side. 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 tray and down onto the grave (drainage channels are evident on some trays supporting this assumption). The tray would thus provide food for the dead. Such trays usually date from the First Intermediate Period to the Middle Kingdom (2181-1650 BCE).

Downes, D., 1974 'The Excavations at Esna 1905-1906' 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/