Late Period, 664-332 BC. A limestone square offering table with slightly chamfered edges, the lower part roughly carved; the top carved with four panels, the upper two with representations of offerings, the lower with two recessed panels for food offerings either side of a long channel which projects slightly for liquid offerings. 8.16 kg, 30 x 33cm (12 x 13"). Property of a Jerusalem gentleman; inherited from his father who acquired them in the 1970s. Offerings of food were basic to the continued existence of the gods and the dead alike. They were often presented to them on special tables. In the homes these might stand in niches in a room used as a domestic shrine, in temples in rooms dedicated to offerings and in tombs below ground if there was an accessible chapel, otherwise it was placed on the ground on top of the grave or in specially built funerary chapels. During the Old Kingdom food offerings were presented to the deceased lucky enough to have a substantial tomb on stone platters or offering tables in front of their funerary stele or false door, but for most the offerings were probably, a loaf of bread and a cup of beer placed on top of a mat. The stone offering tables of the wealthy imitated these simple reed mats and were decorated with food stuffs and inscribed with the offering prayers, which would nourish the deceased through their magic, if real foodstuffs were not provided. In depictions the offering tables are laden with a great variety of exquisite foodstuffs, and quite possibly that was the quality and quantity of offerings customary among the rich. The offering table was often placed in front of the false door in the funerary chapel, through which the soul of the deceased person was believed to pass so that they could partake of the offerings. In the Middle Kingdom offering tables fell out of fashion in favour of models of food, along with models of servants and buildings that were required by the deceased, and which were believed to magically come to life in the next world.

Fair condition.