In some ways, this graceful statue of a woman looks like a servant. She carries a basket of bread and meat on her head and a live duck in her hand.

But other details suggest that she’s much more than a servant. She wears the traditional costume for women of her time—a long, tight dress and a tripartite wig. But the pattern of her dress suggests that it’s made of feathers, a garment usually worn by goddesses such as Hathor, Isis and Nepthys—deities who protected the dead in the afterlife. And while most women in Egyptian art seem very still, standing with their feet locked together, this one strides forward in a purposeful pose usually reserved for men. Walk around the figure, and notice how dynamic the curves of her body are.

Actually, this figure’s posture, and the way she holds her basket on her head, suggest that she is a personification of an agricultural estate or farm—a symbol of the bountiful land itself. For the deceased Meketre she symbolized the provisions that came from these estates to serve as perpetual food for his spirit.

A second very similar estate figure was also found in the tomb. In the division of finds, it went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

All of the colors on this wooden masterpiece are original, and have never been restored.