Offering Table of King Amenemhat VI

This unique artifact is the Offering Table of King Amenemhat VI, a relatively obscure pharaoh of Egypt’s 13th Dynasty during the Middle Kingdom, around 1765–1762 BCE. Offering tables were essential components of Egyptian religious practice, used as platforms for food, drink, and incense presented to the gods or to the spirits of deceased kings. What makes this table especially notable is its dual design: it’s divided into two distinct halves representing Upper and Lower Egypt, symbolizing the unity of the two lands under the king’s divine rule. Each half is further subdivided into twenty-four circular depressions, believed to represent dishes for offerings—possibly correlating to the forty-two nomes (provinces) of ancient Egypt at the time. This number wasn't arbitrary; it reflected a cosmic order and the structure of the state as understood in religious ideology. The table is made of quartzite, a durable and prestigious material often reserved for ritual objects. Its form and features suggest a solar cultic context, possibly linked to rituals honoring Ra, the sun god, or dedicated more directly to Amun-Ra, who had by then emerged as Egypt’s most powerful deity, especially at the Temple of Karnak in Thebes (modern Luxor) where this piece was found. The offering table's physical design—orderly, symmetrical, and symbolic—mirrors the Egyptians’ deeply spiritual worldview, in which maintaining balance (ma’at) was both a divine mandate and a daily duty. The table itself, therefore, wasn’t just functional; it was a miniature model of the cosmos, where the king acted as the high priest between heaven and earth.