Models :-

Possibly as late as the Early Dynastic Period funerary sacrifices of royal retainers destined to serve the king in the afterlife may have taken place. These practices ceased and the tombs were furnished with figurines of servants and pictures instead.^[30]

A so-called "Concubine of the dead"
19th dynasty, Gurob
Source: Petrie Museum website, UC16758

The need for servants may have been most pressing to those who had been waited upon hand and foot during their lifetime, but people saw also the need to have models of granaries, houses, gardens, of farmers ploughing, of carpenters building furniture, weavers weaving cloth, of model tools and weapons, boats, furniture, animals and even of model offerings.
    The models served various purposes. During the Middle Kingdom, when they were more fashionable than at any other time, clay house models, the so-called soul houses, were left on top of pit graves and had the function of offering tables, ensuring the continued existence in the afterlife.
Model granary
Abydos, 1st dynasty
Petrie Museum website UC36721b
Wooden models of farmers and artisans plying their trade placed in rock-cut tombs on the other hand were destined to increase the material well-being of the tomb owner,^[28] and clay granaries to ensure their food supply. The importance the Nile had as a waterway and the place navigation had in mythology is reflected in the great number of boat models; in the tomb of Meketre for instance they made up half of all the models.^[29] As funerary boats their role was to further the deceased person's progress through the underworld.





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