Egyptian Ba-bird woman statuette

A characteristic later Kushite (Merotic) sculpture, this statue shows a part-human, part-bird figure. The creature embodied the Egyptian concept of the Ba, one of the forms of the soul of the deceased. Often made of sandstone, such statues were set up outside the tombs of high-ranking individuals in Lower Nubia (southern Egypt and northern Sudan). This particular example presumably came from the tomb of a woman as it is in female form.