Multiple Materialities of the Offering in Egypt: The Case of mnpḥ

Egyptian temples are profusely decorated with scenes showing the pharaoh performing animal sacrifices, offering food, or presenting various objects with symbolic value. In this last case, the image of what is offered is usually easy to identify, but the image alone is not sufficient to explain the purpose of the offering. Texts accompanying the offering scene explain the role of the pharaoh and gods involved, the nature of the offering, and its role based on mythological events and their theological interpretation. Some lists of materia sacra, unfortunately, almost all from the Hellenistic or Roman period, give information of this kind but in a very laconic form. In some cases, the offered object is not immediately recognisable. Discovering its identity as a real object, then as a symbolic one, leads to revealing its apparent multiplicity of roles and even materialities. The example of the object called mnpḥ is particularly illustrative in this respect. It is an oryx skin, but it was also regarded as a cloth and as a part of boats belonging to different gods. This article aims at explaining the logic that links these different roles.