Terracotta Female Figurines from the Monastery of Manqabad (Asyut, Egypt): Analysis and Possible Function

The project of studying and classifying the pottery assemblage from the monastery of Manqabad (Asyut) started in 2014 and has been focused in its first phase on the docu- mentation of the items currently kept in the warehouse at el-Ashmunein (Egypt). So far, 150 out of 245 ceramic specimens have been analyzed and included in a digital da-tabase, according to the data recorded by the inventories of the el-Minya Inspectorate. During the last season (2019), some interesting terracotta figurines representing female figures and small animals have been the object of a more in-depth study in order to clarify their function and meaning within the complex Christian rituals of Late Antique Egypt.