Highlights of the Manchester Museum 29: An Offering by Queen Tiye for her Husband

Campbell Price describes an offering table with a touching significance.

- Campbell Price

This seemingly unassuming object, a small (25 x 11 cm) black granite offering table, captures an unusual expression of emotion. It comes from the excavations of W. M. Flinders Petrie at the site of Gurob, the ‘harem’ complex used to house royal women and children during part of the New Kingdom (c. 1400-1200 BC). Manchester Museum holds many objects from Petrie’s excavations at Gurob, located near the mouth of the Fayum.

It is likely that the queen spent a lot of time at Gurob, and the inscription on our offering table suggests she lived here as ‘Queen Mother’ after her husband’s death. This small object offers testimony to that likelihood. The hieroglyphs read:

An offering which the king gives (to) Osiris, Ruler of the West, that he may allow coming and going in Rosetau for the royal ka (of) the Osiris, Neb-maat-ra.

An offering which the king gives (to) Osiris, Ruler of Eternity, that he may give all that comes out upon his altar for the royal ka of the Osiris, Neb-maat-ra;