What kind of wood is this?
Great question. I don't have the wood type identified in my notes, but my guess would be cedar. Wood was a luxury project in ancient Egypt as it had to be imported. Cedar would have come from Lebanon.
Tell me more.
Because oryxes lived in the desert and the Egyptians were unsuccessful at domesticating them, they were associated with chaos and seen as a negative force. Here, it is shown bound. A symbolic way to exert control over them, thus containing their negative associations.
This object is actually hollowed out slightly in the back and was designed as a dish to offer food for the deceased, which they needed to sustain themselves in the afterlife.