Offering table from the mortuary temple of Amenemhat I

Offering table from the mortuary temple of Amenemhat I

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This imposing offering table was found at the west end of a passage just outside the northern wall of the pyramid temple of King Amenemhat I at Lisht North. It must have been placed there by the quarrymen who - most probably in Ramesside times - dismantled the temple. Originally, the offering table presumably stood in the open court of the temple, its roughly shaped lower part (now removed) sunken into the ground. A rectangular libation basin is carved into the top of the object, as well as representations in flat relief of an offering mat with two libation (hes) vases and three loaves of bread; the middle loaf is incised with the king's throne and Horus names and the added wish: "may [he] be given life forever!" At the center of the offering table's front side the incised birth name of the king (Amenemhat) forms the focus for rows of approaching fertility figures (fat men and women carrying offerings) who are designated by inscriptions as personifications of nomes (regional governorates) of northern Egypt (on the left) and southern Egypt (on the right).

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Offering table from the mortuary temple of Amenemhat IOffering table from the mortuary temple of Amenemhat IOffering table from the mortuary temple of Amenemhat IOffering table from the mortuary temple of Amenemhat IOffering table from the mortuary temple of Amenemhat I

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.