© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Shabti of a Woman

AAT Object Form/Functionushabti

AAT Object Techniqueinscribing

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodThird Intermediate Period, Dynasty 21

Date1076-944 BCE

MediumFaience

Credit LineCharlotte Lichirie Collection of Egyptian Art

Dimensions2 3/4 x 13/16 in. (7 x 2.1 cm)

Object number1999.001.126

Label TextDuring the Third Intermediate Period, as more and more figurines were included in the burial assemblage, the quality of shabtis declined. Molds were used to produce figures quickly and inexpensively, often resulting in figures with unmodeled backs and poorly defined features. Inscriptions were also abbreviated, providing only the name and occasionally a title or filiation for the deceased. An innovation of this period is the reis, or overseer shabti, charged with managing the large workforce provided for the deceased in the afterlife. The overseer was distinguished by his daily-life attire and the whip grasped in one hand, as illustrated by this example.

In this example, the texts are extremely faded, and that of the reis figure is completely illegible. The small shabti belonged to a woman whose name seems to be a compound in corporating the name of the goddess Mut.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - 2006
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001), 29.

ProvenanceEx coll. Niagara Falls Museum, Niagara Falls, Canada. Purchased by MCCM from William Jamieson (1954-2011) [Golden Chariot Productions], Toronto, Canada.

Status

Not on view

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