Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian) · statue
Offering Table
Description
[Egypt, Greco-Roman period (332 BCE–395 CE), Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BCE)] Offering tables were used in ancient Egyptian funerary rituals to create a connection between the realms of the living and the dead. Often located near or inside tombs, the table was placed flat in front of <em>ka</em> statues, figures designed to contain the life force of the dead, with the carved surface facing up. Water would be poured over the table, sustaining the dead with vitality. The carved relief displays images of libation jars, beer jars, fruit, bread, cucumbers, a trussed fowl, and a lotus flower. These foods were associated with the diet of the gods, emphasizing the deceased’s desire to become divine in the afterlife.
Cross-references (2)
- Wikidata Q79474053 tier-1
- CMA-id 94103 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.