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

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Reis (Overseer) Shabti

AAT Object Techniquemolding (forming)

AAT Object Form/Functionushabti

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodThird Intermediate Period

Date1076-723 BCE

MediumFaience

Credit LineEgyptian Purchase Fund

Dimensions5 9/16 x 1 15/16 x 1 3/16 in. (14.1 x 4.9 x 3 cm)

Object number2000.013.002

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 incorporating the name of the goddess Mut.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - Present
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001), 29.

ProvenancePurchased by MCCM from Bonhams London, October 21, 1999, lot 286.

Status

On view

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