Paddle Dolls have been interpreted variously as concubines for the dead, as children's toys, or as figurines embodying the concept of fertility and rebirth. This article argues on the basis of eight lines of evidence that they were representations of specific living women, namely the Late Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom khener-dancers of Hathor at Deir el-Bahari. Paddle dolls have been recovered from secure archaeological contexts at very few other sites and only in small numbers, but they are

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... equently found at Asasif. Their tattoos resemble those found on women buried in the precinct of the mortuary temple. Likewise, their bright, patterned outfits are strikingly similar to those of one particular Theben khener-troupe of Hathor depicted in the tomb of Kenamun (TT 93). The figurines were often interred in groups, and these groups could include a young girl figurine, just as khener-troupes often included girl trainees. The figurines are also found in statistically significant numbers with clappers, harps, and mirrors, all equipment typical of khener-women. The shape of the figurines, it is argued, consciously echoes that of a menat-counterpoise, the sacred fetish of Hathor, and it is suggested that the marked emphasis on the pubic triangle is due to the role of the khener-women in reinvigorating the dead king, which they undertook in the same manner as Hathor had revived her own father, the god-king Re, in the Contendings of Horus and Seth. It is secondarily argued that virtually all of these lines of evidence also apply to the truncated female figurines typical of the Twelfth Dynasty. Hathor, "Lady of the Vulva" (nbt Htpt) and with the protection offered by this mother goddess in matters of both birth and rebirth. 9 Most commonly, however, paddle dolls are rather generically seen as "a repository of the power of human sexuality and fertility" 10 and as a potential aid for enjoying both in the next life. In this article, I argue from eight lines of evidence that paddle dolls represent female members of the Theban khener-troupe of musical performers that served the goddess Hathor and were perhaps co-opted and appended by Nebhepetre to his royal mortuary cult at Deir el-Bahari. Some of these lines (especially those having to do with tattoos and costume) take up threads of ideas that have been proposed by others, 11 but many lines are new (especially those dealing with location, demographics, and the association of the paddle dolls with clappers, harps, and mirrors) and derive from a study of the unpublished archaeological contexts of paddle dolls excavated in the environs of Deir el-Bahari. These tombs in Asasif represent by far the largest corpus of excavated paddle dolls, with other examples coming in much reduced numbers from nearby Theban tombs, from Beni Hasan, Sheikh Farag, Naga el-Deir, and from Rifeh. In the course of this essay, I will discuss all these lines of evidence, but the arguments inspired by the excavated contexts of the figurines constitute the meat of the study. Paddle dolls are found in burials that date from the late Sixth Dynasty to the Thirteenth Dynasty, although their period of greatest popularity seems to have been the late Eleventh and early Twelfth Dynasties. 12 Many of the observations pertinent to paddle dolls are also applicable to the fully-rounded, Middle Kingdom figurines of nude, bejewelled, and frequently tattooed women with truncated legs, 3 MMA tomb card 2609 for Asasif tomb 818. The figurine referred to is MMA 31.3.43. A similar sentiment is expressed about JE 56276 on the MMA tomb card 2562 for Asasif tomb 816.