An Offering Formula
This specimen uses an unusual writing surface. Most everyday writings,
I understand, used shards of pottery or limestone flakes called
ostraca and not expensive papyrus. This example, however, is
written on a wooden tablet coated with plaster. Maybe this was a
"production order form", on which a professional scribe took notes
about the text his client wanted produced.
The first four lines of the tablet contain elements
of the "offering formula". The offering formula was inscribed on tomb
walls and funerary stelae, where it served as a magical source of
sustenance for the deceased. It consisted of several standardized
phrases. Although certain parts were obligatory, other parts could
be expanded, shortened, added or left off, as space and the desire of
the client demanded.
This tablet contains the following segments of the
offering formula:
An offering of the king
to Osiris,
Lord of Abydos,
that he might give
a voice offering
of bread
and beer,
everything
good and pure,
for the ka of
revered
before
the Great God,
Lord of Heaven,
and before
Min,
Lord of Coptos, N.
I've written the hieroglyphs left-to-right, but the
original on the tablet is oriented the more usual right-to-left. The
glyphs actually written on the tablet are in red, while those phrases
which are part of the
usual formula but not present on the tablet are in grey. Place your mouse
over the glyphs to see their transliterations. The name of the client, N, would
come next in the formula, but
is not included on the tablet, unless it is 
Ipy.
The offering formula ensured the comfort of the
deceased in the next world by giving the deceased a share in the
offerings made to the gods, and by reminding the living to make a
"voice-offering" for the deceased. This was simply a brief prayer
for "bread, beer, thousands of cattle and birds for the ka
of" the deceased. Sometimes other suggested offerings were included:
alabaster, linen, unguents, incense, water, and the like. With such
magical protection, the deceased was guaranteed a comfortable
afterlife, even if those officially charged with maintaining the tomb
neglected their duties.
Doodles cover the rest of the tablet. Some appear
related to the offering formula, while others do not. I imagine that the
scribe met with Ipy and took notes on how Ipy wanted his offering formula
to read. Perhaps the scribe knew the size of the area to be inscribed,
and advised his client on how much text would fit there. Maybe he
made a few idle sketches while they talked. Afterward, he turned the
tablet over to the stoneworkers (or maybe first produced a full version
from his notes), who carved the words into Ipy's tomb wall. When they
were done, they tossed out the tablet, and it laid buried in the rubbish
for 4000 years.
