© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Offering Table

AAT Object Form/Functionoffering tables

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodOld Kingdom

Date2543-2120 BCE

MediumCalcite ("Egyptian alabaster")

Credit LineEx Brummer Collection, donated by the Brummer-Laszlo Family

Dimensions2 15/16 x 15 9/16 in. (7.5 x 39.5 cm)

Object number1998.013.015

Label TextTables such as this would have been placed on the ground or on top of tall pottery stands. They are frequently depicted in tomb scenes showing the deceased seated at a table piled high with food.

Offering tables appear in the Early Dynastic Period and were commonly included in the burial equipment of the Old Kingdom. They were frequently made of calcite, although other types of stone were also used. While they are rarely found after the end of the Sixth Dynasty, they continue to be represented in offering scenes until the end of pharaonic civilization.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - Present
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001), 25.

ProvenanceEx coll. Ella Brummer (1900-1999), New York, New York.

Status

On view

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