Statuette of a companion of the dead

This statuette, broken at the waist and arms, represents the concubine of a man of rank, the figure being placed in the tomb to accompany her lord in the next world. It is of blue-green faience with details in black, and shows the upper part of a woman with features summarily modelled. Her close-cropped coiffure, also in black, is pierced with sixteen holes in three rows on each side of the central parting: a further group of four holes lies below the occiput. The holes in the coiffure are relatively large and deep. A number appear to be filled with a substance resembling beeswax, and some at least of these inter-connect by a common channel. It would appear that such holes were for the insertion of hair or other filaments, the group of four at the rear forming the anchorage for a pigtail. Such holes appear in similar statuettes in other collections (e.g. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, nos. 22.1.11.45, 34.1.125; see Hayes, 1953: 220-21).

At the throat is a flower (lotus?) on a necklace which is tied at the nape of the neck with a simple knot. Around the waist at the rear are the remains of tattooing, indicated by blue dots in a lozenge pattern. A similar but more complete figure is in the Louvre (no. E10942; see Noblecourt, 1953: pl. 1).

Entry taken from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection 3 volume catalogue, edited by Steven Hooper (Yale University Press, 1997).