Fertility figurine

This limestone statuette depicts a nude female figure that exemplifies a particular group of ancient Egyptian coroplastic, clearly associated with the concept of fertility. She is represented standing with closed legs, both arms at her side with hands flat against the thighs, and her sexual characteristics are highly enhanced: her waist is narrow, the breasts and the pubic triangle are plastically accentuated. She wears a tripartite wig to the shoulders, the facial features are heavily abraded and the contours are blurred, yet the red colouring of her lips can still be discerned. The collar is also indicated with red paint. Additional traces of reddish pigment reveal that her arms were once adorned with bracelets. The legs are missing, they have been apparently broken off right above the knees, so it is impossible to assess whether or not the feet were originally rounded off as typical of the type. All in all, based on its dimensions and stylistic features, this female statuette is closely related to the fertility figurines that are known primarily from funerary and domestic contexts and date to the Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period.
Prevailing scholarly theories tend to consider these fertility figurines as votive offerings deposited in tombs, domestic shrines and temples of the goddesses Hathor, Mut or Anuket to promote successful conception and grant divine blessings in the perilous time of early childhood.