During the Old Kingdom, statuettes were sometimes placed in the tomb to act as servants taking care of food production for the deceased in the hereafter. This is presumably a nonviolent continuation of a custom from predynastic times, when the actual servants of the deceased were to follow their master into the grave. This custom is also known from other early cultures. The statues function alongside the wall reliefs of the tomb which represent providing for the deceased. Both are of great value to scholarship because they preserve details of a cultural-historical nature for us. The present sculpture represents a kneeling female who is stooping over an sloping oval-shaped millstone. She is holding the cylindrical grinding stone with both hands while strenuously grinding the corn into chaff and flour. The servant has raised her head and is looking straight ahead. Her hair is covered by a cloth which has been tied at the neck. The statuette was found in a humble and relatively late mastaba which nevertheless yielded rich finds. The tomb contained ten statues of the deceased and his wife, four of which are now in Vienna, as well as two servant statues depicting the brewing of beer and one of a baker working at an oven.
)
