Translated Egyptian Limestone Offering Table for Pa-Wab

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Egypt, Late Dynastic Period, 26th to 31st Dynasty, ca. 664 to 332 BCE. A rectangular funerary offering table with a central relief, hand-carved from a large slab of limestone. The body features a pair of low relief hes-vases with inverted piriform bodies and projecting discoid rims, and a central orb is perhaps indicative of an offering bowl. A narrow channel is carved at the top of the perimeter. The perimeter and lower body are presented with a lengthy hieroglyphic inscription that when translated reads, "God's father, prophet, Hem-Ka priestÂ…prophet ofÂ…, prophet Montu?, god's father, prophet ofÂ…, Isis the great, prophet of Re-HorakhtyÂ…Min-HorusÂ…, lady of the town of Tep-Ihu, giving bread, beer, oxen, fowl, wine, milk and every good and pure thingÂ…Overseer of prophets, Pa-Wab." Hes-vases were used in purification, libation, and offering rituals - the hes-vase hieroglyph translates as "praise" or "to favor" - and their likeness in this example suggests this table was used for offerings of precious oils or other liquids. Size: 10.25" W x 14.75" H (26 cm x 37.5 cm)

For an example of a hes-vase with a strikingly similar profile as those in the central relief, please see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 35.3.24.

A stylistically similar example of an offering table, of a slightly larger form and from the Middle Kingdom period, hammered for $50,000 at Christie's, New York "Antiquities" auction (sale 2007, June 4, 2008, lot 3).

Provenance: private J.H. collection, Beaverton, Oregon, USA; ex-Explorer Ancient Art, New York, USA; ex-Royal-Athena Gallery, New York, USA and London, UK; ex-private UN diplomat P.A. collection, purchased in Egypt in the 1970s

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#149648
Condition Report: Professionally repaired from roughly twelve pieces, with resurfacing along obverse break lines, and chipping and light adhesive residue to those on verso. Losses to areas of periphery, perimeter, hes-vases, and verso as shown. Nicks and fading to some raised details and inscribed hieroglyphs, with light encrustations. Nice earthen deposits throughout, and many hieroglyphs still legible.