Skip Navigation

Paddle Doll

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Paddle dolls were once thought to be children’s playthings: their abstract shape simplifies a woman’s body like a toy doll, and often the front is painted to represent a herringbone-patterned dress. On the back, however, the goddess Taweret, who protected pregnant women, is drawn. The image of the goddess, together with the explicit marking of the pubic triangle on the front, now leads scholars to think that these paddle figures magically encouraged fertility in the tomb, thus allowing rebirth into the afterlife.
MEDIUM Wood, pigment
  • Place Made: Egypt
  • DATES ca. 2008–1630 B.C.E.
    DYNASTY Dynasty 11 to Dynasty 13
    PERIOD Middle Kingdom
    DIMENSIONS 8 1/8 x 2 5/16 x 1/4 in. (20.6 x 5.8 x 0.6 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 37.105E
    CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Flat wooden female figurine, without legs, with details of anatomy, garment and jewelry painted on both sides in red, black, and white. On the reverse side is a painted figure of Ta-Weret. Condition: The left arm is missing. There is a large jagged crack in the wood in the middle of the figure. An ancient repair with plaster was made of a large hole in the bottom half of the figure and then painted over. There are two smaller holes, unrepaired, in the center front and back.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Paddle Doll, ca. 2008–1630 B.C.E. Wood, pigment, 8 1/8 x 2 5/16 x 1/4 in. (20.6 x 5.8 x 0.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.105E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.105E_front_PS2.jpg)
    IMAGE front, 37.105E_front_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2007
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.