Figure 1.--This is a little limestone statuette of Nykara and his family. The provenance is not known. Scolars date it to the Old Kingdom, late Dynasty 5, circa 2455–2350 BC. Nykara was a scribe of the granary. He is seated between the standing figures of his son, Ankhmara, and his wife, Khuen-nub. Given his position and ability to affiord a family statuette suggests that he wa a man of influence and well-to-do. Ankhmara is naked, but given his father's social status, this was not a matter of poverty. He has a sidelock of hair, and the finger to mouth, as children were commonly depicted. He is shown as the same height as his mother. Here we have two theories. First, tThe boy was really very young, but the sculptor depicted him in a taller height for some reason, probably to show all three heads in a row. Second, the boy was older, but the sculptor depicted him as a little child to show that he was the son. This and other similar depictions suggest that during the Old Kingdom that boys commonly went naked until they reached puberty. Source: The finger to the mouth is frequent in ancient Egyptian images of little children. Many Egyptologists think that it is a representation of babies and toddlers putting a finger in the mouth, that was common when there were no pacifiers. It thus may be a more acurate age inducator than the size of the depiction. Brooklyn Museum).

Egyptian children until puberty during the summer usually went around without any clothing at all. Adults for that nmatter did not wear a lot of clothing. Clothing was expensive, much more expensive in relative terms then in out modern age. Thus it is not surprising that children did not commonly wear clothing. This was epecially prevalent during the summer and for the younger children. Clothing was expensive and many peasants could not afford to clothe children who would quicly dirty their clothes in play or agricultural activities. This does not mean that children never wore clothes until puberty. Paintings do not always show children naked, although the younger the child, the more likely he is to be naked in the paintings. It is likely that many young children might have some clothes. They might have normally gone naked, but may have been dressed for special occassions or on cool evenings. Early artistic depictions of children are usually naked such as the children on the previous page and the boy here (figure 1). We also notice a rare stand along child done a few centuries later.