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EC875

EC875

Blue glazed faience fragment, bottom half of a figure of a nude woman. 4cm high. This was made in a mould and has a flat back. The arms of the figure are placed straight at the side of the body, and the feet are not modelled. The figure is thin.  

This type has been categorised by Geraldine Pinch as a type 5 fertility figure; a type which mainly dates to the New Kingdom (Pinch 1993, 205-207, pl. 50). Most type 5 figures come from temples and seem to have been made as votive offerings. They were perhaps made in the temple to be given as gifts to the gods. 

It is possible that these figures were accidentally snapped. Another suggestion is that they were deliberately broken as part of a rite (Waraksa 2009, 18-20; 67-72), though the argument put forward by Waraksa is largely related to clay examples. 

 

Pinch, G., 1993. Votive Offerings to Hathor. Oxford: Griffith Institute and Ashmolean Museum.

Waraksa, E.A. 2009. Female Figurines from the Mut Precinct. Context and Ritual Function. Fribourg: Academic Press Fribourg.

 

 Other fertility figurines in the collection

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