Editing Libation (section)

==== Ancient Egypt ====
Libation was part of [[ancient Egyptian]] society where it was a drink offering to honor and please the various divinities, sacred ancestors, humans present and humans who are alive but not physically present, as well as the environment.<ref name="auto3">{{cite book |last1=Nehusi |first1=Kimani S.K. |title=Libation. An Afrikan Ritual of Heritage in the Circle of Life |date=2016 |publisher=University Press of America |isbn=978-0-7618-6710-4 |page=14 |language=en }}</ref> It is suggested that libation originated somewhere in the upper Nile Valley and spread out to other regions of Africa and the world.<ref name="auto">Delia, 1992, pp. 181-190{{full citation needed|date=March 2024}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite book |last=James |first=George G. M. |year=1954 |title=Stolen Legacy |place=New York |publisher=Philosophical Library}}</ref> According to [[Ayi Kwei Armah]], "[t]his legend explains the rise of a propitiatory custom found everywhere on the African continent: libation, the pouring of alcohol or other drinks as offerings to ancestors and divinities."<ref name="auto2">{{cite book |last=Armah |first=Ayi Kwei |year=2006 |title=The Eloquence of the Scribes: a memoir on the sources and resources of African literature |place=Popenguine, Senegal |publisher=Per Ankh |page=207}}</ref>

Milk libations for [[Osiris]] may have originated at [[Philae temple complex|Philae]] and spread southwards into [[Meroë|Meroe]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yellin |first=Janice W. |title=Abaton-style milk libation at Meroe |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/32296635/Yellin__Abaton-Style_Milk_Libation_at_Meroe__Meroitica_6.pdf |journal=Meroitic Studies}}</ref> It is also possible the reverse occurred; as milk libation was already known to Nubians, they may have introduced it to Philae.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Ashby |first=Solange |title=Milk Libations for Osiris Nubian Piety at Philae |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/705360 |journal=Near Eastern Archaeology|date=December 2019 |volume=82 |issue=4 |pages=200–209 |doi=10.1086/705360 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
{{Gallery
|title=
|width=
|lines=|File:Maler der Grabkammer des Userhêt (III) 004.jpg|Egyptian tomb painting of a mortuary priest offering libation (1298–1235 BCE)
|File:Stèle de la musicienne de Tefnout, Meretitef - Musée du Louvre Antiquités égyptiennes N 267 ; C 116.jpg|Libation on a musician's [[stele]] (332–284 BCE)
|File:Libation basin Louvre E25551 n01.jpg|Libation basin representing the flooding of the [[Nile]] (2nd–3rd century CE)
}}