Chris Blessen
Old Kingdom Offering Chappel
Dates from the Old Kingdom sometime around 2450-2350 BC.
In acnient egyptian tombs, there were two chambers. One chamber housed the mumified body of the tomb owner which was sealed after burial and the other chamber was the public offering chappel. The chappel was the location where rituals would take place to keep the owners soul alive in the West, which was the realm of the dead. In order to keep the sould alive, life sustaining elements had to be provided in effort to nourish his or her survival. The food offered could be real or pictured or even writen about in some way. Here we see some of the depictions of this food with the lotus plant in the middle. In Egyptian mythology, the lotus was associated with the sun, because it blooms by day and closes by night. The lotus also symbolized rebirth, since one Egyptian creation myth tells of the newborn sun god rising out of a floating lotus. These mythologies and associations with the sun tell some of the story of the plants importance to the food chain and the growth of new food. Maybe it was this depiction that would cast the needed presence of light on the other real or depicted offerings of food so that they could survive and in turn nourish the soul in the tomb.
Old Kingdom Offering Chappel
Dates from the Old Kingdom sometime around 2450-2350 BC.
In acnient egyptian tombs, there were two chambers. One chamber housed the mumified body of the tomb owner which was sealed after burial and the other chamber was the public offering chappel. The chappel was the location where rituals would take place to keep the owners soul alive in the West, which was the realm of the dead. In order to keep the sould alive, life sustaining elements had to be provided in effort to nourish his or her survival. The food offered could be real or pictured or even writen about in some way. Here we see some of the depictions of this food with the lotus plant in the middle. In Egyptian mythology, the lotus was associated with the sun, because it blooms by day and closes by night. The lotus also symbolized rebirth, since one Egyptian creation myth tells of the newborn sun god rising out of a floating lotus. These mythologies and associations with the sun tell some of the story of the plants importance to the food chain and the growth of new food. Maybe it was this depiction that would cast the needed presence of light on the other real or depicted offerings of food so that they could survive and in turn nourish the soul in the tomb.