Offering tables

ABSTRACT: This lecture, which forms part-1 of two parts, includes a discussion and illustration of the following topics: (1) How the Ancient Egyptians conceived of the tomb and its component parts; (2) How a typical middle-upper class family prepared their tomb; (3) What problems emerged regarding mortuary cults (e.g., continuity of offerings; security; etc.) and how they they resolved them (in part); (4) Ancient Egyptian beliefs about communicating with dead (including how they communicated); (5) Egyptian views upon reusing earlier tomb materials and actual practices (i.e., Did they still do it? Discourage it?); (6) Some of the Ancient Egyptian private (and royal) mortuary/funerary beliefs; (7) Some of the mummification practices during the Old Kingdom; (8) Old Kingdom (and later) Egyptians beliefs and approaches to death, mourning, and funerals; (9) Further discussion on private/elite afterlife beliefs (i.e., what happened after death?); (10) How the surviving family initiated and maintained a funerary cult for relatives; (11) Some of the ideal types of mortuary offerings (i.e., by the living …); (12) The various types of “back-up,” permanent offerings for the deceased; (13) Evidence for some historical autobiographical texts and other data (and their types); (14) Some doubts are sometimes implied (especially later) regarding the afterlife; and (15) The "typical" elite mastaba tomb layout/components (e.g., Burial; False door; Serdab). UPDATED: Extensive editing, formatting, and some additions on March 12, 2023.

Offering tables have been neglected in the study of ancient Egyptian funerary ritual and have not been adequately handled as cultic/ritual artefacts placed within a mortuary landscape. This paper will apply theoretical approaches regarding the use, context and ritual significance of mortuary ritual artefacts to the analysis of offering tables in order to illustrate the difficulties in understanding such artefacts and identifying viable approaches to defining ancient Egyptian magical practice. It is proposed that offering tables or platters from Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt (ca.2600-1750 BCE) may reflect architectural and topographic features in their design, revealing essential information regarding their ritual use and context. Several such objects display, in miniature, entire canal systems thus indicating the life-giving forces that such irrigation systems transmitted to fields and pools from the inundating Nile water. The offering objects may therefore be ritual landscapes themselves, used as ritual theatres for activating the ka.

ABSTRACT: This lecture covers the First Intermediate Period (FIP), spanning Dynasties (7)/8 through early/mid-11 (ca. 2,200-2,040 BCE), but includes periodic discussion regarding the late Old Kingdom leading up to this period and the Middle Kingdom emerging from it.  The lecture begins with a summary of what we know about the decline of, albeit continuity of the (increasingly nominal) Memphite royal rule in, Egypt’s early First Intermediate Period (Dyns. 7-8), which can be considered part of the late Old Kingdom (e.g., King Ibi/Aba).  It proceeds with the transition from Dyn. 8-9 (including the nomarch Ankhtifi [southern Egypt]), and continues with the rise and establishment of the Herakleopolitan (northern kingdom) and Theban (southern kingdom), incorporating a summary of historical events, art, architecture, material culture, and other aspects (e.g., King Khui; Nomarch Intef; Montuhotep I [the founder]; Kings Intef I-III; Montuhotep II).  The lecture then furnishes selected selected contemporary (FIP) texts --and some later, early, key Middle Kingdom (propagandistic) texts-- to illustrate some trends and characteristics attested and alleged during this period (sometimes called a "Dark Age").  It gives an initial introduction to the roots and rise of the Osiris cult (at Abydos), the deity Osiris, and his nature and changing roles in the FIP through Middle Kingdom (and later).  In the concluding section, the lecture covers the main characteristics of mortuary customs and practices during the First Intermediate Period (and into the Middle Kingdom), including (1) regional variance in burials (e.g., furnishings and decoration), (2) a few known royal tomb forms (e.g., saff/row tombs; small pyramids), selected poor to elite tombs (e.g., pit graves; rock-cut; mastaba tombs), a rise in rural burial wealth (e.g., Qau-Mostagedda cemetery), regional art (e.g., new/different and poor to good quality tomb decoration; an emerging Theban art style), false door stelae and offering slabs, different scenes with tomb owners (e.g., banquet scene; couples; other), coffins, the Coffin Texts (including roots in the Pyramid Texts and new spells), and guide maps (to the afterlife), cartonnage mummy masks (new), human-headed canopic jars, ka-spirit statues and statuettes, amulets, jewelry, seals, soul houses, models (including illustrations of diverse types: FIP-Dyn.12), and paddle dolls.  The lecture concludes with a series of summary slides.  UPDATED: 28 March, 2023, adding bibliography, some new text, revised/edited text, and some re-formatting.

Ouvrage disponible en libre accès sur la page de l'éditeur : https://books.openedition.org/momeditions/193

En Égypte ancienne, la mort semble être une préoccupation constante. Pour affronter cette étape tant redoutée, le dogme prévoit une existence dans l'au-delà, mais celle-ci demeure conditionnée au maintien de la mémoire des individus parmi les vivants. Chaque personne va donc tenter, en fonction de son statut et de ses capacités, de développer certaines stratégies pour rendre son propre culte éternel et garantir ainsi son immortalité.
Cette étude, fondée principalement sur l'analyse des pratiques post-inhumatoires, souhaite mettre en évidence les différents leviers qui sont utilisés en vue de pérenniser les cultes mémoriels : le choix du lieu, celui des supports et enfin – peut-être surtout – l'intégration à de multiples matrices sociales complémentaires. Car le maintien de la mémoire est avant tout affaire de société. L'individu, pour exister, se doit d'interagir avec la communauté, qu'il soit vivant ou bien mort.

ABSTRACT: This lecture aims at providing an overview of mortuary practices, customs, and beliefs during the Middle Kingdom, with a main focus on middle class to especially upper class tombs.  The lecture begins by providing a brief overview on the various basic types of Middle Kingdom elite tombs, such as mastaba tombs and rock-cut mastabas in flat areas and desert plateau tops, rock-cut tombs in the Nile Valley, and some group burial complexes on mound tops in the delta.  The lecture continues by furnishing an example of tomb chapels, their architectural components, fittings, decoration, decorative placement, various components, genres, and their significance and meaning, using the Dynasty 12 tomb of the nomarch (governor) Khnumhotep II as the main example, but adding further illustrations of ka-spirit statues, offering tables, and the Ancient Egyptian (biased) scribal views on various professions and industries in the Satire of Trades.  The last part of the lecture looks at burial chambers and their fittings, including sarcophagi, box coffins (including different styles, decoration and inscriptions, Coffin Texts, guide maps to the afterlife, etc.), anthropoid coffins, face masks, mummies, canopic jars and chests, funerary jewellery (i.e., with protective/ritual amulets), shabti figurines, statuettes, furnishings, adornment (non-ritual jewellery), cosmetic kits, games, professional and personal items (e.g., musical instruments; tool kits; hunting equipment; weaponry), models (e.g., weaponry; housing [i.e., soul houses; house model]; food; offering tables; Abydos pilgrimage boat [with a reference to tomb chapel decoration]).  The lecture ends with a series of summary text slides. UPDATED: 15 April 2023: Adding more slides/images, editing/revising, re-formatting, and adding in a section on poorer burials (Thebes; Qau; Abydos; Buhen), plus a selected bibliography at the end.

The offering table under consideration is now in a private collection, but some criteria can assign its origin to Saqqara during the end of the FIP. Some palaeographical peculiarities seem to indicate that it was made by at least two different craftsmen. This hypothesis constitutes the starting point of a discussion on the localization of workshops and organization of tasks.

THE OLD KINGDOM EGYPTIAN OFFERING-STONES FROM THE HERMITAGE MUSEUM  ◉

Five offering-stones of different types and one fragment of an ointment-slab are presented in the paper. All of them belonged to insignificant officials of the second part of the Old Kingdom. Very important is the offering-stone of Spss-ptH, (inv. No. 18106) who was Hm(w)-nTr ra(w) in the sun-temple of Userkaf, wab-priest of the pyramid of Userkaf, xnt(j)-S pr aA and xnt(j)-S of the pyramid of Djedefre. The most interesting is the last title since it gives the third known mentioning of the name of Djederfre's pyramid. The offering-stone is to be dated back the first half or the middle of Dyn. VI that means that the cult of Djedefre was much longer than it is usually supposed to be. This fact throws a new light on history and ideology of the Old Kingdom; at least the traditional opinion about persecution of his memory is to be revised now. The rest of the offering-stones are rather ordinary.  ◉

A new augmented and corrected publication of the offering stones is in BOLSHAKOV, Studies on Old Kingdom Reliefs and Sculpture in the Hermitage.

Document de travail, février 2017 Ce document rassemble les dix-neuf tables d'offrandes pour lesquelles une difficulté de lecture persiste, mais pourrait être surmontée. Avant de soumettre l'intégraltié du corpus (900 objets) à un éditeur je soumets ces dernières difficultés à la communauté scientifique et invite tout un chacun à formuler ses propositions et com-mentaires. Les passages posant problème (essentiellement des noms et titres) sont marqués en rouge. La localisation des inscriptions sur le monuemnt suit les codes suivants : N = natte P = pain F = fond (i.e. autour des bassins) C = colonne © Rémi Legros-Mafs

The discovery of approximatively seven hundred offering tables within the royal necropolis of Pepy I brought to light the necessity to implement a new, more specific method for dating. A seriation model for measuring the chronological development has been formulated in order to date this material ranging from the 6th to 11th dynasties. A seriation obtained by a permuted matrix is presented in this paper from a methodological point of view, illustrated by forty examples of dating criteria.

The production of offering tables under the 12 th dynasty could have been organized in a number of ways. An offering table workshop from the reign of Senusret III can be seen as a case of centralised production of offering tables for officials from different regions. On the other hand, the corpus of offering tables from Asyut can be attributed to several generations of local craftsmen, adhering to a distinct local artistic tradition. The evidence points to the borrowing of new iconographic features by local craftsmen and possibly to a case of adaptation of an offering table in accordance with the local tradition.

Saqqara is one of the most important heritage sites in Egypt and the world. Many foreign missions have been operating there for a long time. The French mission is one of the oldest missions working in Saqqara. In 2014, under the supervision of Prof. Philippe Collombert, the mission pursued the excavation of the Shawaf site, which is to the north and east of Queen Behenu’s pyramid. At the entrance of the complex, they found some stone blocks and several off ering tables. One of the off ering tables may possibly be dated back to the Herakleopolitan Period. It was very fragile and needed to be cleaned. For security reasons, the off ering table was transported to the storeroom, where conservation and restoration works were completed.

The offering table CGC 57019 has been tentatively dated to the Old Kingdom by the author of the Catalogue Général. The "rediscovery" of its origin, thanks to the archaeological context and the associated monuments, allows to suggest a datation under the XIIth dynasty, not before the reign of Senwosret Ist.

The concept of contagious magic is the belief that spiritual properties within an object, place, or person may be passed on through contact or physical proximity. The physical form, material and placement of a sacred object, as well as spells connected with it, may explain how rituals could have been performed. Ancient Egyptian offering tables and their development throughout history may provide insights into connotations behind practices such as communication with, as well as animation and transformation of, assumed divine forces and energies. Given their role of offering tables as transmitters of divine forces and energies such as the ka of deities and the deceased, the Egyptians must have valued them to a higher degree than previously assumed. 
I will present thick descriptions made in a previous project highlighting notions behind the use of magical utensils including a reinterpretation of offering tables and the importance of magic in Egyptian piety, heka, i.e. activating the ka through magical techniques such as: i) using liquid to transmit the essence of images of victuals to the dead; ii) obtaining healing power from liquids poured over cippi or offering tables; iii) the storage and ‘empowering’ of liquids in magical vessels; and iv) dissolving written texts in liquids and swallowing them to obtain their powers. The study aimed at demonstrating how Egyptian magic tried to ‘materialize’ the immaterial turning it into a tool for healing, as well as fomenting a relation with a spiritual dimension beyond human existence. In my present research I am using a larger sample, studying materials, colouring, wear and the probable handling and context of magical objects to investigate the connectivity between elements and beliefs in how energies could be released and harnessed through manipulations of materia magica and shed light on the meaning and function of ancient Egyptian offering tables.

An homage to long serving studio tables, originally built for the architecture design studios in the faculty of architecture, at the University of Manitoba, this essay reflects on the primary site of making and decisive imagination which for centuries has supported architectural agency.

The paper deals with iconographic criteria that can be used to refine the dates of non-royal stone offering tables within the reign of Dynasty 12. Based on a reference group of 181 offering tables dated through epigraphic criteria and prosopographical data, eight dating criteria are discussed. The dates of the offering tables owned by the governors of Bubastis, Antaeopolis, and Meir are refined.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate early contexts for the rites conforming the offering Pyramid Texts of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties. Although the original form of the recitations in the mortuary cult was oral, a process of entextualization came to fix these recitations in writing, first as aide-mémoire for ritualists and then as ‘actualisations monumentales’ for the deceased. A comprehensive analysis of the process of formation of the offering list from the Second Dynasty to the reign of Unas reveals a cogent association of the involved priestly services and items with the offering rites in the Pyramid Texts. In fact, it is suggested that the canonization of the offering list by the mid-late Fourth Dynasty resulted from an attempt to standardize the structure of offering services in Giza and Saqqara that later extended to the royal mortuary corpus.