Votive Statuette of Neith, Late Period, 722-332 BC

The worship of the goddess Neith began as early as the third millennium BC and continued until the end of the pharaonic era. She was a complex deity who was a warrior goddess, a creator goddess, a mother goddess. As a funerary goddess, she is mentioned in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts. Neith was also the goddess of Lower Egypt whose principal site of worship was Sais, in the eastern Nile Delta.

The goddess wears the Red Crown associated with lower Egypt, and strides forward with her left leg advanced on an integral rectangular plinth. She holds one arm at her side and the other stretched out before her. Each fist is pierced and once carried insignia. She wears an ankle-length dress and a delicately incised broad collar around her neck. The tip of the Red Crown and spiral wire are destroyed.

The statuette was once part of the Romanov collection and was purchased by Georges Ricard for the Senusret Collection from Roger F. Galliano, a member of the Conciliation Commission at Central Customs in Paris, certified expert of the Chamber of Auctioneers of France and Judicial Officer of Geneva.