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Lot 15
An Egyptian limestone offering table fragment for the Royal Cup-Bearer Sa-renenutet
28 November 2017, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £8,125 inc. premium
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An Egyptian limestone offering table fragment for the Royal Cup-Bearer Sa-renenutet
New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III, circa 1390–1353 B.C.
Carved in low relief with a scene of offerings, on the left a tall vase and five bread jars on a table above two rectangular basins for libations, on the right a table piled high with food including a bushel of wheat and trussed birds, a lotus flower on the side, a band of hieroglyphs running around edge reading: '[...] the sky is opened for you, the earth is opened for you, O Osiris Sa-renenutet, true of voice, for you is opened a path in the necropolis. You will come forth and enter like Re. You will travel freely like the Lords of Eternity. You will receive [...]', along each of the libation's basins a band of hieroglyphs, on the right reading: 'This cold water of yours O Osiris Tjawy, true of voice, has come forth for your son, has come forth [for Horus. I have come] and I bring you the Eye of Horus that your heart may be refreshed thereby [...]', on the left 'Chapter for the wine of the Osiris Tjawi, true of voice. This libation of yours is of abundant wine, come forth from Nun. I have brought it to you that you might be great thereby before the gods [...]', the top and left borders of the table with columns of hieroglyphs containing formulas from the chapters 269, 275 and 307 of the Pyramid Texts, 22 x 29.4cm
New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III, circa 1390–1353 B.C.
Carved in low relief with a scene of offerings, on the left a tall vase and five bread jars on a table above two rectangular basins for libations, on the right a table piled high with food including a bushel of wheat and trussed birds, a lotus flower on the side, a band of hieroglyphs running around edge reading: '[...] the sky is opened for you, the earth is opened for you, O Osiris Sa-renenutet, true of voice, for you is opened a path in the necropolis. You will come forth and enter like Re. You will travel freely like the Lords of Eternity. You will receive [...]', along each of the libation's basins a band of hieroglyphs, on the right reading: 'This cold water of yours O Osiris Tjawy, true of voice, has come forth for your son, has come forth [for Horus. I have come] and I bring you the Eye of Horus that your heart may be refreshed thereby [...]', on the left 'Chapter for the wine of the Osiris Tjawi, true of voice. This libation of yours is of abundant wine, come forth from Nun. I have brought it to you that you might be great thereby before the gods [...]', the top and left borders of the table with columns of hieroglyphs containing formulas from the chapters 269, 275 and 307 of the Pyramid Texts, 22 x 29.4cm
Footnotes
Provenance:
Recorded in the possession of an antiquarian in Luxor in 1964; reportedly in the shop-owner's possession since 1928.
Ambassador Victor Allard (1924-2013) collection, Brussels, acquired circa 1965-1970; and thence by descent.
Published:
J.J. Clère, 'La table d'offrandes de l'échanson royal Sa-Rénénoutet surnommé Tchaouy', in Bulletin du Centenaire, Supplément au Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, T. 18, Cairo, 1981, pp. 213-234.
Sa-renenutet, nicknamed Tjawy, was a member of the priesthood for the goddess Weret-Hekau, the great enchantress, with the title of Cup-Bearer. Five other artifacts are known for this official: a sistrophoros statue in the British Museum, an inscribed statue in the Cairo Museum, a stele of which a fragment is in Cairo and another in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and a clay brick in Berlin (see Clère, op. cit, p. 214).
The present relief constitutes the rear left corner of a limestone offering table of which two other fragments are known: one in the Cairo Museum and another in the Pennsylvania University Museum, inv. 29.87.476. As the Philadelphia fragment entered the museum as part of the finds of the 1921-1923 archaeological excavation carried out by Clarence S. Fisher in the necropolis of Dra abu el-Naga, it provides a possible location for the tomb of Sa-renenutet.
Although some sections of the table remain missing, the three surviving fragments provide a good overview of its general aspect. As Egyptian offering tables generally have a symmetrical composition, it is possible to assume that the decoration was composed of two pairs of basins on each side, with offerings above. The function of the two basins of this lot are identified by the hieroglyphic inscriptions: the one on the left is to be used for wine, and the one on the right for the water with which to purify the offerings. It is possible that the two missing basins would have been earmarked for milk and beer, the other two common types of offering (see Clère, op. cit, pp. 216-230).
Offering tables played a major role in the Egyptian cult of the dead. Placed in the public area of the tomb, they were used by the deceased's relatives or the funerary priests to perform the offerings and rituals which ensured the immortal life of the deceased. The representation of food on the top of the tables aimed to guarantee sustenance to the deceased even if food offerings were no longer presented (see S. D'Auria, P. Lacovara, and C.H. Roehrig, Mummies and Magic: the Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt, Boston, 1993, p. 129).