Female Harpist
Limestone, pigment
Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5, ca. 2477 B.C.
Giza
Purchased in Cairo, 1920
OIM 10642

While ancient Egyptian women served as the caretakers of children and maintained the family home, they were also employed as dancers, mourners, midwifes, priestesses, weavers, merchants, and musicians. Among the most charming of our statuettes is this female harpist. She leans a large shovel-shaped floor harp on her left shoulder as she plucks the strings with both hands. The upper section of the harp neck has been broken away. Her garment has a single broad strap that crosses the left shoulder leaving her right shoulder bare. Her skin is painted a medium yellow tone and her hair (or wig) is blunt-cut, the curls or braids indicated by crosshatching.

The typical Egyptian family consisted of a father, his wife and children, and sometimes female relatives, such as mothers, grandmothers, sisters, or aunts. Married women carried the title "Mistress of the House." They spent most of their time preparing food, baking bread and brewing beer. Women were responsible for keeping the household "running" and supplying it with everything it needed.

Women of ancient Egypt did not often hold public office, but some in the private sector held positions of trust as treasurers, managers of royal households, and overseers in the textile industry. Women were equal to men under the law, and the rights of a woman generally depended on her class, not her gender.