Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2007)

KATALIN ANNA KÓTHAY: A Defective Statuette from the Thirteenth Dynasty and the Sculptural Production of the Late Middle Kingdom

Though the attitude of the figure may indicate that it was a votive statuette, i.e. one placed in a tomb or a shrine, sculptures in similar poses and made from dark hard stone were also deposited in tombs.'

1 It has been suggested that the lack of inscription on a statue might be due to the fact that it was placed in a tomb where other funerary objects identified the owner, thus making it unnecessary to inscribe the statue.

18 However, the desert crust developed on the surface of the statuette implies that it was exposed to the open air for a long time. Hence the Budapest statuette appears not to have been deposited in a tomb. It is almost certain that it was not placed in the court of the Osiris temple either, its poor quality and small size making this very unlikely. The rough under side of the base does not rule out the possibility that it was inserted into a shrine or an offering table. Thus, if the statuette, despite its unfinished condition, was indeed used for a cultic purpose, it was most probably placed in a private shrine. Katalin Anna Kóthay is curator at the Egyptian Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.