29 August 2012

An Egyptian "paddle doll"

"Paddle dolls" earned their nickname because of their resemblance to modern Ping-Pong paddles. They all show exaggerated depictions of female genitalia. Some are decorated with rudimentary drawings of couples engaged in sexual intercourse, and others have images of birth gods. The iconography of birth and reproduction suggests that the Egyptians believed "paddle dolls" enhanced fertility for the living and probably also for the dead.
From the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, where I had to search for other examples of paddle dolls to decipher how this image depicts female genitalia, even in exaggerated form.  Apparently the small triangle at the very bottom of the carving is thought to represent the pubic region.

Via A London Salmagundi.

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