Fertility figurine

This object exemplifies a group of ancient Egyptian statuettes, made of clay or less frequently limestone, each depicting a female figure lying on a bed or couch, stand-alone or often accompanied by a small-scale figure of a child, sometimes bordered by images of vessels or cosmetic tools. This type seems to have been introduced in the New Kingdom during the late Eighteenth Dynasty and continued to be used until the Late Period.
This particular piece depicts a single female reclining on a bed, shown frontally, with both arms at her side. It serves to illustrate a rather crude craftsmanship typical of objects of mass production. It was made in a single-piece open mould, the ends and the sides are therefore rounded; the back is flat and plain. The footboard of the bed is only hinted at by an upward curve. The post-firing white coat is clearly traceable across the body surface. The naked body itself was disproportionately fashioned with a thick trunk and short legs. She wears a straight wig that reaches to her neck and a plastically rendered, wide headband on her characteristically flat-topped head.
Prevailing scholarly theories tend to label these objects as fertility figurines that may have been deposited as votive offerings in tombs, domestic shrines, and temples of the goddesses Hathor, Mut or Anuket to promote successful conception and grant divine blessings in the perilous time of early childhood. Owing to their high popularity, they were fashioned in large quantities in settlements and ceramic workshops belonging to temples and cult centres. The type this piece serves to represent tend to show up primarily in funerary and domestic contexts, only rarely in temple context.