Woman baking bread

This painted limestone statuette depicting a woman baking bread was discovered at Giza within Tomb G 2415.

According to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where this piece currently resides, the statue was broken in antiquity and was fixed via a wooden peg, holding the base together. If you look closely, you can still see the crack underneath her resting hand, which holds a stick prodding the ceramic vessels before her.

Dating from around 2420–2323 B.C., making it a 5th Dynasty, Old Kingdom piece, this statuette would have been a funerary item, providing the deceased with ongoing baking of fresh bread for eternity.

Bread was a staple of the Ancient Egyptian diet for all classes. The female baker seen here uses an Ancient Egyptian traditional way of heating food items by using ceramic vessels placed within hot ash. This is a practice that still goes on today in modern Egypt; take a walk down a Cairo souq and the traditional coffee would often still be heated within hot ash. It is proposed that the combination of heat from top and bottom baked the bread in just over an hour and a half.

The naturalistic style of this ancient masterpiece, showcases the woman in a thoughtful pose, hand on head, as she awaits. The serenity of her gaze has been captured by the anonymous artist.

Summary:

Woman baking bread
Old Kingdom, reign of Niuserra, 5th Dynasty, c. 2420–2323 B.C.
Tomb G 2415, Giza.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 21.2600