Female Figure on a Model Bed

The clay and limestone sculptures represent a well-defined group of female figurines, each depicting a nude woman lying on a model bed or couch. This type appears to have been introduced during the late Eighteenth Dynasty and continued to be used until the Late Period. The large pottery figurine depicts a single female lying on a slab with both arms at her side. She is shown frontally, with a slender body clothed, quite exceptionally, in an ankle-length dress. The figurine was coated with a post-firing red-wash, the wig, the eyes and the eyebrows are painted black.
According to the prevailing theory, these objects should be termed as votive fertility figurines that may have been deposited not only in tombs but in domestic shrines and in temples of Hathor, with the purpose of promoting successful conception and rearing of children.