After writing up Aidan Dodson’s talk for the EEG about the First Pharaohs I went looking for some Early Dynastic objects to share and my photo of this group of human figurines in the Met caught my eye. They were found at the Osiris Temple in Abydos, as part of a deposit of items.

The central female figurine is the one that draws the eye, she’s about 10 inches tall and is made of ivory – it’s quite astonishing how well she’s survived the last 5000 years, many of which she spent buried in the ground.

In the “Dawn of Egyptian Art” Diana Craig Patch positions this figure as being part of the evolution of Predynastic art into the more familiar later style e.g. by the end of the Early Dynastic period a female figure would be wearing a long dress but this one is still naked.

She is now in the Met, acc. no.: 03.4.12

See the photo on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/1394/

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=2cbfbac25a7e
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=347a9de913ea