Ceremonial Situla of the 'Great Praised' Penmin showing Nut as a tree-goddess, and Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Harsiese Macedonian and Ptolemaic Period, 332–30 BCE Bronze or copper alloy, 27 cm (10 5/8 in.) with handle 39.7 cm (15 5/8 in.) Fletcher Fund, 1965, MMA 65.116

There's a scene engraved upon it of the ba-bird (representing the person's immortal soul) and a goddess within a tree who is annointing him with vital fluids. Description from museum website: "Just below the rim of this situla is a band of stars indicating the sky, and beneath that is a register of inscription which asks that the 'Great Praised' Penmin give life to Hepetkhonsu, and names various other individuals whose relationship is not entirely clear. Two scenes cover opposite sides of this vessel. In one scene a tree goddess, named here as Nut, pours water down over Penmin on the right and his ba (in the form of a bird) on the left. In the other Penmin adores across an offering table the gods, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Harsiese. A lotus design clasps the rounded bottom of the vessel. "The situla honored the funerary cult of Penmin and also prayed for health for the living Hetepkhonsu. Large situlae with this genre of scenes involving offerings to funerary gods and references to the funerary cult of a deceased derive, when their provenance is known, from the Theban area. There they are most likely to have been associated with the Festival of the Decades, whose celebrations had by this time largely overshadowed those of the Festival of the Valley. The festival of the Decades marked libations performed in original intent every 10 days by Amun of Opet to his ancestor primeval gods at the mound of Djeme; this became a context in which the deceased more generally could share in libations made by the god to his ancestor gods, and a focus of observances. "Penmin is given no other titles on this situla than 'Great Praised,' a designation that points to a special category of the dead who had a sort of saint-like status. This title and its possible relation to the Festival of the Decades along with other points about this situla, some of them mentioned above, were illuminated in an unfinshed study by the Egyptologist Jan Quaegebeur.

Situla @ Lacma

Situla @ Lacma