Vatican Museums

The situla is a ceremonial vessel used for daily temple ritual and for private funerary worship. Indeed, a number of situlae have been found inside tombs and it would seem they are depicted, within burial sites, in scenes of funeral processions and offerings to the deceased.
The situla contained milk for the aspersions carried out during the funeral procession that took the sarcophagus to the burial site; milk was also offered to the deceased for his or her rebirth and sustenance along with the water used for libation on the table of offerings as a rite of purification.
The situla displayed in Room VI is pear-shaped, with a curved lower part and moveable arched handle. On the lower part of its belly it depicts a scene of worship: on the left there are the gods Isis and Osiris, while on the right there is the deceased Krya, son of Kenenqes and Asukra, as indicated on the inscription engraved next to him. In the centre there is a table laden with offerings.
The object was acquired by the antiquarian Giuseppe Baseggio in 1840.