Publication and study some of the female figurines (concubines) at the Egyptian Museum

Abstract

It was important to study the female figurines because as demonstrated in this research, they included different types of Middle Kingdom "Paddle Dolls," faience figurines, female figurines represented on beds from New Kingdom, female figurines represented on plaques from the Late Period, and Greco-Roman figurines. The female figurines were made of faience, clay, wood, bone, ivory and limestone. They were discovered in a wide range of sites in Lower, Middle, and Upper Egypt, as well as Nubia. They were attested in different locations inside the tomb. Sometimes they were found beside the deceased's tomb and other times among the funerary furniture or among pottery and other funerary goods. They were represented as standing, kneeling, sitting, on plaques, on beds, and in stelae and shrines. The female figurines that are represented on 3D stelae, on beds and in chapels were found in the temples of the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period, and some also date to the Greco-Roman Period especially those from Memphis. The female figurines are not concubines. They are can be considered royal court servants and we may call them "Hathor's image". There is a similarity between these female figurines and the goddess Hathor, as both are associated with tombs, temples, and houses. The female figurines were found in chapels related to Hathor or other gods or goddesses that are related to her roles. Moreover, they are the real image of Hathor as "Horus's House", especially that these female figurines were represented nursing children, like the representation of Hathor with Hours. The paddle dolls were used as amulets for the protection of mothers during pregnancy and after giving birth and the protection of children thereafter. The different headdresses reflected the different roles that they played such as protection, sexuality, motherhood, marriage, beauty, and happiness. The truncated female figurines were only represented to the thigh, and most of them were found in temples for the ritual performance for the god / goddess of the temple. They were, therefore, probably represented kneeling. Female figurines with representations of birds, and depictions of ducks and geese, represent the moment of creation. These female figurines have dots, water waves, dashes, and lozenge patterns on them. All of these patterns refer to water, as water is the origin of life.