Wooden statue of a woman carrying offerings, believed to represent a personification of an estate. Egypt, 12th Dynasty, 1981–1975 B.C.

Middle Kingdom

On display at The Met Fifth Avenue, Gallery 105. Excavated by the Egyptian Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1920 and acquired by the Museum that same year through the division of finds.

This exceptional example of Egyptian wood carving was discovered in a concealed chamber adjoining the passage to the rock-cut tomb of the royal chief steward Meketre. Meketre began his career under King Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II of Dynasty 11 and continued his service into the early years of Dynasty 12. Along with a nearly identical female figure (now housed in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo), this statue once flanked a remarkable assemblage of twenty-two miniature models of gardens, workshops, boats, and a funerary procession, all tightly packed into the chamber.

The woman is depicted striding forward with her left leg extended. She balances on her head a basket filled with cuts of meat, while holding a live duck by its wings in her right hand. This iconography is familiar from Old Kingdom reliefs, where lines of offering bearers represent estates that eternally provided sustenance for the tomb owner’s spirit. The figure is richly adorned with jewelry and wears a feather-patterned dress, a type of garment often associated with goddesses. For this reason, she and her counterpart in Cairo may also be connected to the funerary goddesses Isis and Nephthys, who are frequently shown at the head and foot of coffins, guarding the deceased.

Although all accessible chambers of Meketre’s tomb had been looted in antiquity, in early 1920 the Museum’s excavator, Herbert Winlock, directed workmen to clear out the debris to produce an accurate floor plan. During this process, the hidden chamber was revealed—its contents astonishingly intact, including the two statues and the collection of models.

Object Details

Title: Estate Figure
Period: Middle Kingdom
Dynasty: 12th Dynasty
Reign: Early reign of Amenemhat I
Date: ca. 1981–1975 B.C.