What do the Figurines of ”Bird Ladies” in Predynastic Egypt represent?

My wonder was piqued when I read the Brooklyn Museum’s description regarding Figures 1a and 1b:” The bird-like faces on two of these figurines probably represent human noses, the source of the breath of life [1].” Immediately I would describe the head as “inhuman” and “flamingolike”, so why did specialists in the field interpret it so differently.

When I dived into the area, it turned out fortunately that in addition to these figurines, which I have chosen to call “Bird Ladies” after the nickname of the most famous, there were also several decorated jars depicting women with traditional faces but with raised hands and there was a tradition of seeing these in connection with the figurines. It provided a broader, faceted basis from which to discuss interpretations.

A better and enlarged image of a detail on a decorated jar showed reasonably clearly a woman with raised hands and a bird’s head (Figures 3 and 6) and it has also pulled me in a bird-like direction. I have arrived at the following hypothesis which reasonably covers the nine focus points / details I think an interpretation should answer: The Bird Ladies represents a hybrid between bird and woman - a goddess. The raised arms probably express resurrection. The goddess might be an early version of the white vulture goddess Nekhbet.

Keywords: Predynastic Egypt; Bird Lady; bird-like; figurine; Nekhbet