Lustration slabs

Libation was a central element in offerings made to the dead.608 The Instructions of Ani state: ‘Libate for your father and mother who are resting in the valley’,609 but do not mention where such an offering ritual should be carried out, whether in the necropolis, in the home, or both, as specified, for example, in P. Sallier IV610 There is evidence for at least 80 ‘lustration slabs’ in Amarna houses;611 traces of several more were probably discovered but not recorded during excavations, and many had been removed for reuse.612 These limestone or sandstone platforms were usually found in the main room, and were provided with means of drainage along with additional stone slabs acting as splash-guards to protect adjacent walls; a similar arrangement of stone blocks was found in the washing area of ‘bathrooms’ at Amarna.613

The rectangular shape of the slabs, which often had a small rectangular runnel in front, is reminiscent of other objects associated with activities involving water such as offering tables, libation basins, and ‘bathroom’ trays, as well as lits clos. The fact that the slabs are found in houses both large and small614 indicates that they had a significance across the social spectrum, and their prominence in the central room of the house suggests a cultic function.615 Although they have been variously identified as troughs, jar stands, and places for washing616 the location of one in front of a double false door617 supports the view that they were intended for religious rather than mundane purposes. If niches containing stelae, busts, or other images or figurines of the deceased were set into the walls above the lustration slabs this could have been the location of some of the offering rituals depicted on stelae, such as that of Henut, on which a woman is depicted pouring water and burning incense before an anthropoid bust on a plinth.618