A Third Intermediate Period openwork piece of funerary equipment from the Chapel of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari

A set of wooden figures representing female deities with painted fronts and flat backs was identified in the archaeological material coming from recent excavations in the Chapel of Hatshepsut. The fragments were scattered through the shafts of Third Intermediate Period date. Most probably they had once formed a single piece of funerary equipment from one of the burials. Remains of nine figures were distinguished. These were divided into two groups by size. The smallscale figures had outstretched arms, while the big-scale ones were shown with one arm raised and the other lowered alongside the body. They are presumed to have been attached to a flat wooden background. Both iconographical types are attested in the decoration of mortuary equipment from the New Kingdom on, though no object decorated with the same set of goddesses has been found so far.