Votive offering of faience beads in mud

 

Votive offering of faience beads in mud

Faience beads impressed into a cake of mud as an informal votive offering. The blue and the mud both evoke the theme of fertility. In clearing the temple of Hatshepsut of the 18th Dynasty, the Egypt Exploration Fund discovered large numbers of votive offerings placed as prayers or thanks to the goddess Hathor. Many of these offerings seem to have been made by women, and were probably intended to guarantee fertility and safe birth.

Present location

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRELAND [30/002] DUBLIN

Inventory number

1907:477

Dating

18TH DYNASTY

Archaeological Site

DEIR EL-BAHARI

Category

RELIGIOUS OR CULT OBJECT

Material

CLAY; FAIENCE

Technique

FORMED BY HAND

Width

5.5 cm

http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/detail.aspx?id=2329