Cosmetic Spoon in the Form of a Swimming Girl
Third Intermediate Period–Kushite Period
Made of faience with bright turquoise glaze, this cosmetic container has a handle in the form of a naked girl holding a rectangular basin in her outstretched arms. Naked except for her black wig, the girl is thought, based on two-dimensional representations that show such figures in a marshy setting, to be swimming. In other examples, the girl can hold a waterfowl, a marsh plant, or a cartouche, and such spoons have been interpreted as ritual objects that can be read as rebuses associated with goddesses such as Nut and Hathor.
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