Female Figure

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Female figures of this type, often found with burials especially of the Middle Kingdom, were in the past called "concubines." Nowadays they are understood in a more general sense as representations of the life-giving female powers of sexual attraction and giving birth, powers from which the dead could derive a new life. As is the case for most representatives of the type, this faience figure lacks the lower legs and has elaborate tattoos all over its body. The figure also wears a girdle of cowrie shell shaped beads and a long bead necklace crossed over the chest. The hair is arranged in the so-called "Hathor" style–two thick tresses with curled ends falling forward over the shoulders.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art