Images(4)

Offering Table

Artist Unknown

Datecirca 2686–2184 BCE

MediumTravertine

DimensionsH. 5 in. (12.7 cm) x Diam. of table top 17 in. (43.2 cm)

ClassificationsNatural Substances

Credit LineGift of Dr. and Mrs. Gerhard L. Weinberg

Object number2016.23.2

On View

On view

Label TextTables of this type were placed directly on the ground or on a tall stand inside the tomb’s offering chapel, notably in front of a false door. On it could be placed a variety of offerings, such as those seen in countless funerary scenes depicting the deceased seated before an offering table laden with bread loaves, jugs and beakers containing beverages, meat and fowl, vegetables, and even lotus flowers.

After the Old Kingdom, this type of table fell out of fashion and has rarely been found in later tombs, although it was still depicted in funerary scenes.
ProvenanceEx Luxembourg collection (per dealer, n.d.); Astarte Gallery, London, UK; sold to Gerhard Weinberg, Efland, NC, 1990; on extended loan to NCMA, 2008–2016; given to NCMA, 2016.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Objects of Desire,” July 18, 2004–February 27, 2005.

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