An introduction to Ancient Egyptian wooden statues at David Aaron

Wooden statues and statuettes have been found in tombs spanning the entire history of ancient Egypt, even despite wood’s tendency to degrade over time. These wooden models represent a range of figures and animals, singly and in groups, often engaged in a range of activities from ‘daily life’. It is believed that these models were designed to populate the tomb with workers to ensure that the tomb owner would receive material comforts in the afterlife. Despite the skill that went into their production and the intricate details represented, the majority of these statuettes were hidden within the enclosed chambers of underground tombs, only visible to visitors through narrow viewing slits. Later examples have also been found in temple contexts, both freestanding royal statues and smaller votive figures placed in wooden shrines.

Carpenters at Work, Tomb of Rekhmire New Kingdom, ca. 1504–1425 B.C. Image: Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art

Working in Wood

The native trees of Egypt – acacia, tamarisk, date palm, plane tree, and sycamore fig – did not provide the best wood for carving. Instead, better-quality timber had to be imported from the surrounding countries at great cost: cedar, cypress, spruce, pine, yew, and birch were imported from Syria and Lebanon, and ebony from Sudan and Ethiopia. These imported woods, particularly yew and cedar, were the most expensive and, therefore, the most prestigious to work in. Despite the costs involved, wood was a popular material for statuary from the Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods into the Late Period.

Alongside the finished wooden products themselves, there is ample evidence of ancient Egyptian carpentry, including groups of tools, paintings, and even wooden models of workshops. The earliest evidence of Egyptian woodworking dates to the early Badarian period (c. 5500-4000 BC), with many of the tools used during the dynastic periods based on pre-dynastic precedents. Adzes (flat chisels with a wide cutting edge on the end of a hooked handle), awls, drills, chisels, saws, mallets, and axes, were all used to smooth and shape wood. A full carpenter’s kit would also include measuring equipment, scribal palettes and knives for marking outlines, a slate for sharpening the metal tools, and a lathe for rotating wood smoothly while carving.

Saw, 18th Dynasty, Egypt. © The Trustees of the British Museum

Model of a Carpentry Workshop. Image: Courtesy Egypt Museum

Wood was a good material for representing fiddly details, like limbs held away from the body, extended legs, and small hands holding smaller objects – it was soft enough to carve without huge difficulty, but strong enough to support fragile extensions. Often, a figure’s arms were crafted separately and attached to the torso with a simple but strong mortise and tenon joint. The finished statues were frequently covered with a layer of plaster, both hiding any joints between separately carved parts, and creating a neutral-coloured surface to serve as background to bright polychrome paint. Statues could also be finished using gilding, varnish, and inlaid elements.

Old Kingdom

Gold figurines discovered at Tell el-Farkha’s Eastern Kom. Image: Courtesy Egypt Museum

Wooden models were produced from as early as the Pre-Dynastic Period (for example, the gilded figures from Eastern Kom, Tell el-Farkha). The first wooden models of single figures from the Dynastic Period are dated to the end of the 5th Dynasty, and they increasingly appeared in the tombs of elite figures following the reign of Pepi II Neferkare (r. c. 2278-c. 2214 B.C.). From the 6th Dynasty onwards, wooden statues and statuettes supplanted limestone as the primary material used for tomb models. A figure of a man from the 6th Dynasty, previously in the collection of Dikran Kelekian (1867-1951), demonstrates the high levels of skill already attained by Egyptian carpenters of this period: the partially pleated fabric of the kilt knotted below the abdomen is carefully articulated, the facial features are both carved and painted, and the nipples were inlaid and painted (only one remains intact).

Figure of a Man, 2360-2195 B.C., 6th Dynasty, Old Kingdom, Asyut, Egypt. Image: David Brunetti

Middle Kingdom

The majority of wooden statues and statuettes that have been found from ancient Egypt were made during the Middle Kingdom. During this period, wooden figures were carved with increasing variety and personalisation. As well as the smaller scale statuettes, large-scale models of offering bearers were positioned in the inner tomb chambers. Generally, there would be a number of these figures per tomb, personifying the estates which would supply the tomb owner in their afterlife. One such pair of large, intricately painted female offering bearers were discovered in a hidden chamber within the tomb of the 12th Dynasty royal chief steward Meketre, during the 1920 excavations led by Herbert Winlock (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 20.3.7, and the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 46725).

Estate Figure, Middle Kingdom, ca. 1981–1975 B.C. Image: Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art

Statue of a woman carrying offerings. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 46725

Tomb Meketre, discovered in February 1920 by the mission of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York led by Herbert Eustis Winlock. Image: Harry Burton

Another partial figure of an offering bearer from the Late 11th-Early 12th Dynasty was previously owned by art historian and advocate for African arts, Madeleine Rousseau (1895-1980), and mounted on a stand crafted by famous artisan Kichizô Inagaki (1876-1951).

Statue of a Female Offering Bearer, Late 11th- Early 12th Dynasty, Middle Kingdom, Egypt . Image: David Brunetti

Collection Madeleine Rousseau, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 23 May 1962, Lot 27, pl. 1.

The Middle Kingdom also saw the return of wooden boat models. First included in 1st-Dynasty tombs, they fell out of fashion until the 11th Dynasty, when they returned in great numbers, and have been found throughout the pyramid complexes of the 12th Dynasty. Boats were an essential part of life in ancient Egypt, for carrying supplies and transporting passengers down the Nile. They varied in design according to function, with reed boats for hunting in the marshes and lakes, papyrus boats for entertainment and religious events (such as carrying statues of gods in religious ceremonies and pilgrimages), and sturdier wooden boats for trading voyages across the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and beyond. Boats were also the vessel of choice for the soul’s journey to Abydos, resting place and cult centre of Osiris, where the deceased could share in the god’s death and resurrection. Boats were usually interred in pairs: one rigged with a sail and oars for sailing upriver (southward) with the prevailing wind from the Mediterranean; the other with oars alone, for the journey downstream against the prevailing north wind.

Funerary Model of a Boat, Middle Kingdom, Dynasty XI-XII, 2087-1759 B.C., Egypt . Image: David Brunetti

Model of a funerary boat, Middle Kingdom, late Dynasty 11 – early Dynasty2010–1961 B.C. Image: Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

New Kingdom

Wooden models continued to be produced throughout the New Kingdom. Tutankhamun’s famous tomb held 35 wooden boats and associated figures, including life-sized painted and gilded wooden statues of the king – an indication that wood statuary may have been far more widespread than the surviving evidence suggests.

A small wooden figure from the 18th Dynasty was in the collection of Adolphe Raifé (1802-1867) and published in his posthumous 1867 sale at Hôtel Drouot. The figure stands on an unbaked clay base with a hieroglyphic inscription that identifies the figure as a personification of the North. This statuette would have been one of a set of the four cardinal directions which would have been positioned in the respective corners of the burial chamber, either surrounding or on top of the coffin, in a rare (but recorded) practice.

Northern Cardinal Figure, C. 1550-1292 B.C., 18th Dynasty, New Kingdom, Egypt . Image: David Brunetti

Handwritten note on underside of base recording the piece within the Raifé collection

Another example from the late 18th Dynasty depicts a young, delicately modelled, nude woman. Previously in the collection of sculptor Joseph von Kopf (1827-1903), and now in a museum collection, this figure attests to the lasting power and appeal of Egyptian wooden sculpture to artists and viewers alike. Her head is clean shaven, except for a circular tuft of hair on her crown, in a hairstyle generally associated with Nubians but also fashionable among young Egyptian women in the 18th Dynasty.

Young Nubian Woman, 18th Dynasty, New Kingdom, Egypt. Image: David Brunetti

Dr. Ludwig Pollak, Joseph v. Kopf als Sammler (Rome, 1905), no. 266, pl. XI.

This style of wooden statuette was particularly popular during the reign of Amenhotep III (r. 1391-1353 BC or 1388-1351 BC), and this figure may well have served a similar purpose to the tomb statuettes of Amenemheb and Huwebenef now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (26.7.1413a, b). This pair of brothers were found in the coffin of a woman named Ahhotep Tanodjmu, dedicated to her by their father, Djehuty. It is likely that Ahhotep was the mother of the youths, united with her family in the afterlife through their wooden portraits.

Statuette of the Child, Amenemhab New Kingdom ca. 1550–1479 B.C. Image: Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art

Excavation photo of statuettes of Amenemhab and Huwebenef. Image: Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art

The statues and statuettes discussed above demonstrate the versatility and quality of carving displayed by ancient Egyptian wooden sculptures. Wood remained the preferred material for tomb models for thousands of years, demonstrating an enduring appeal that transcended developments in artistic style and changes to funerary rites over time. The appearance of ancient Egyptian wood statuary in esteemed collections throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and in museums today, reveals how they continue to inspire and connect with people many millennia after their creation.