Female Ancestral Bust

Female Ancestral Bust

Ancestral busts were kept in the home, perhaps used in rituals that helped maintain the deceased in the afterlife or allowed the living and dead to communicate. Both of these busts were made about the same time and demonstrate how even a cheaper pottery example could be exquisitely made and decorated, though clearly a painted limestone bust would have been more expensive to commission.

This text refers to these objects: 61.49; 54.1

MEDIUM Pottery, paint

•Possible Place Collected: Thebes (Deir el Medina), Egypt

DATES ca. 1539-1190 B.C.E.

DYNASTY XVIII Dynasty-XIX Dynasty

PERIOD New Kingdom

DIMENSIONS 6 5/16 x 3 x 2 5/16 in. (16 x 7.6 x 5.8 cm)

Brooklyn Museum

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/