Book of the Dead, £14.99
Explore / Online Tours
Height: 30.500 cm
Gift of the Art Fund
EA 55729
Ancient Egypt and Sudan
Egypt in the Old Kingdom
Wooden model of servants preparing food
From the end of the Old Kingdom until the Twelfth Dynasty (that is, between about 2300 and 1800 BC), it was common practice for small wooden models of servants to be placed in tombs. The figures represented the household attendants and other servants of the deceased, and were supposed to act as magical substitutes for the persons they represented.
Most of the models depict activities connected with the production of food, drink and other basic necessities of life. With a group of these models in his tomb, the dead man was then assured of having everything he might need during the Afterlife. The figures in this group include a man squatting to cook meat on a spit, while another seems to be pouring a libation (a liquid offering to a god) from a jar over a small offering table.