Limestone base of an offering table belonging to Paneb, Chief Workman at Deir el-Medina, the village occupied by workmen who built the royal tombs in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens. The stand was probably set up in one of the small private chapels adjoining the village. The vertical text on the front is a dedication of offerings to Amun. The horizontal text records the name of his father Neferseret and son Aapahte. On the rear is a dedication to Khnum, Satet, and Anuket, gods of the First Cataract region, who were held in particular honoured by the workmen at Deir el-Medina. According to Papyrus Salt 124, which is housed in the British Museum, Paneb lived a wild and disreputable life. He was given to fighting and drunkenness, seducing married women, stealing from the royal tombs, and threatening to murder. The object was purchased by Sir Henry Wellcome from the 1907 sale of the Robert de Rustafjaell collection. On loan to the Egypt Centre since 1971 as part of the distribution of the Wellcome collection.
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