Head from a Statuette of a Woman

It was a popular practice in the Old Kingdom to place statues and statuettes in the tomb in case the ka, or spirit, of the deceased needed a home on earth. The mummified body usually served this purpose, but the Egyptians made additional images of themselves in case the body was destroyed. Rarely were these true portraits, but rather they were generic, idealized images.

This image represents a woman with an elaborate hairstyle still retaining traces of the original color. Egyptian women were traditionally painted yellow to denote pale skin from a life of indoor comfort, as opposed to the red skin of males, suggesting a tan from sports and labor outdoors.

The small scale of this head may also suggest that it came from a so-called servant statuette. These statuettes show people performing tasks for the deceased which first appear in tombs of the Old Kingdom. The Egyptians believed these servants could magically provide necessities for the spirit if offerings of food and other essentials ceased.