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W1327 Hathor Ostracon
W1327Ostracon (a sketch on a pot or stone sherd) showing a Hathor cow and a procession of three people.  

This item is 16cm high and consists of a painted sketch on limestone. At the top a cow with sun disc between her horns can be seen. The sun disc shows she is a goddess, probably Hathor. Sketches such as this were made by the villagers of Deir el-Medina in Western Thebes as exercises for their official work as draughtsmen in the nearby tombs of New-Kingdom royalty or to record passive incidents in their daily life. The villagers maintained a small temple of their own in which Hathor was venerated, where they themselves performed the daily and seasonal rituals that in the more important state temples were the responsibility of a professional priesthood.  

Hathor has more temples than any other goddess in ancient Egypt . She is mentioned in a number of spells from the ‘Book of the Dead’ including spell 186 ‘Adoring Hathor, lady of the Two lands, mistress of the western desert, Osiris shall say: Hail to thee, great one, lady of the sky, mistress of all the gods, whom Re-Harakhte-Atum joins at his beautiful setting….’  

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