Abstract
Several Old Kingdom tombs have been identified as female burials based either on funerary inscriptions, anthropological examinations, or the assumptions of the excavators inferred from the archaeological context. Besides the typical Old Kingdom burial equipment, workmen's model tools appeared in female burials as well.
Although Old Kingdom women bore administrative and court titles (Fischer 2000), they only rarely held those connected with the organization of work, and they were not craftsmen themselves (Bryan 1996, 39-40; Robins 1993, 116). A detailed study of these assemblages shows that the inclusion of copper model tools in female elite burials was typical of the Old Kingdom Memphite funerary customs.
Moreover, the appearance of copper model tools might actually have been connected with the economic activities of Old Kingdom women.