Family could not always be relied upon to bring food offerings to the tombs, so people included models of servants to look after them in the Afterlife. They thought that magic would bring the models to life inside the tomb. This woman has a food basket on her head and in her right hand carries two geese, to feed her master and his family for eternity.

Figure of a female offering bearer on wood base carrying a vaulted box on her head held in place by a sharply bent left arm. In the right hand she carries two birds. Her dress is painted white. She has long black hair and yellow skin. When found the figure was wrapped in linen. The model is from the cemetery below the Middle Kingdom rock-cut tombs at Beni Hasan excavated by Professor John Garstang for the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology, 1902-1904: the intact rock-cut shaft tomb of Antef (tomb no. 1).

Model of a Servant | National Museums Liverpool

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Family could not always be relied upon to bring food offerings to the tombs, so people included models of servants to look after them in the Afterlife. They thought that magic would bring the models to life inside the tomb. This woman has a food basket on her head and in her right hand carries two geese, to feed her master and his family for eternity. Figure of a female offering bearer on wood base carrying a vaulted box on her head held in place by a sharply bent left arm. In the right hand she carries two birds. Her dress is painted white. She has long black hair and yellow skin. When found the figure was wrapped in linen. The model is from the cemetery below the Middle Kingdom rock-cut tombs at Beni Hasan excavated by Professor John Garstang for the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology, 1902-1904: the intact rock-cut shaft tomb of Antef (tomb no. 1).

Model of a Servant

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