Louvre

Offering-bearer

This statue dates from the first Middle Kingdom, from the 12th Dynasty, and is part of the funeral furnishings of an Assiut tomb in Upper Egypt located on the left bank of the Nile, to the west, symbolically on the side of the world of the dead.

 In the Middle Kingdom, the walls of the tombs, excavated in the often too brittle rock, did not allow the bas-relief. That is why the most important funeral themes were carved in wood, in the form of statuettes or 'models', in series, and placed in the vault. The contribution of the food offerings was necessary for life in the hereafter and summed up the essential food.