Shabtis

Shabtis, the small figures from Egyptian tombs which do the unpleasant work in place of the deceased persons in the hereafter, have a special charm because they are funny and often also very beautifully crafted works of art. The introduction gives a brief overview of the typology and dating, including shabtis of famous persons like Tutankhamun, Sety I, Merenptah, Siptah, Juya, Sennedjem. 64 pages with pictures. 3rd edition.
ASIN: ‎ B0B7XYPV18
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The ushabti, a small statue made to do the work of the deceased in the afterlife, was a staple of Ancient Egyptian mortuary practice from the Middle Kingdom to the end of the Pharaonic period. This paper builds on the work of Hans Schneider (1977) who did an in-depth study of ushabti iconography. Using his study as groundwork, this paper synthesizes data from the Leiden Museum’s catalog of ushabtis in order to explore some trends in material, time period, provenience, and inscription of ushabtis. Then iconographic, material, and textual evidence is used to establish probable date ranges for the period of manufacture for 12 ushabtis from the Denver Museum of Nature And Science. This evidence is drawn primarily from my analysis of Schneider’s catalogue of ushabtis housed in the Leiden Museum, Netherlands, but also from Schneider’s own work on iconography. Conclusions and applications are dealt with in depth at the end of the paper.

"Delicacies from Cairo! The Egyptian Collection of the Pastry Shop and Coffee House Owner Achille Groppi (1890-1949)" edited together with André Wiese (Antikenmuseum Basel) - Catalogue of the exhibition with the same title at Museum August Kestner, Hannover / Germany (23 January - 4 May 2008) and at Antikenmuseum Basel / Switzerland (15 October 2008 - 15 March 2009); with contributions by Laetitia Delaloye, Didier Devauchelle, Jasmin El-Sonbati, Christine Insley Green and photos of Andreas F. Voegelin (Basel) und Claudia Wiens (Cairo).

Sumptuous catalogue of the breathtaking exhibition at Cercle de Lorraine, Brussels / Belgium in June 2012, curated by Jacques Billen of "Harmakhis Archeologie" - Contributions and object entries by Christian E. Loeben are on the following pages: 18-23 (extensive history of the Egyptian Collection at Museum August Kestner, Hannover / Germany), 48-49, 62-63, 69, 70-71, 74-75, 76, 77, 78-79, 84-85, 90-97, 119, 124, 171, 188, 205 (15 object entries), of which the following are notable: p. 70-71 "FACE OF QUEEN NEFERTITI" is the first time made identification of a small quarzite head to belong to a shabti figure of the famous Egyptian Queen Nefertiti previously falsly attributed to her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten (Dynasty 18, 1353-1336 BC). This new identification has in the meantime been confirmed (e.g. by the Egyptologist Christian Bayer, Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim); p. 90-97 "DOUBLE 'SHABTI ON BIER' OF THE PRINCES KHAEMWASE AND RAMESSU, SONS OF RAMESSES II" discusses this fabulous object and compares it to a "shabti on bier" of the prince Thutmose, son of Amenhotep III (Berlin Egyptian Museum, acq. no. VÄGM 117-96).

Middle Kingdom burial assemblages as well as funerary equipment from the Third Intermediate Period uncovered at the North Asasif necropolis during the recent fourth season of archaeological research in 2017 have provided important insight into the development of the necropolis during the Pharaonic era. Seven Middle Kingdom funerary complexes: tomb of Khety (TT 311), MMA 509, MMA 511, MMA 512, MMA 514, MMA 515 and tomb of Meru (TT 240) were targeted in this fieldwork. At the same time, the presence of a Coptic hermitage inside the tomb of Meru, revealed in the process of cleaning the funerary complex, demonstrated its continued use in the late Roman age.

Section 1 of this paper describes a pottery shabti of the Third Intermediate Period and recounts the early stages of the project to understand the name of its owner. Sections 2-7 describe the outcome of the analysis. This covers both the name itself (its variants, orthographies and possible meanings) and a survey of those individuals who bore it in ancient Egypt, ordered by time-period. T-Hbw-aA seems to be a variant of the name TA-n-Hb aA and to denote “Tjainhebu the Great;” TA(y)-n-Hb.w may originally have meant something like “the man of the festivals.” The earliest known Tjainhebu dates to the Middle Kingdom and was probably called “the Great” to reflect his physical size. Precedents are discussed for the unusual orthography of the name on the shabti and its cognates. Some later names of similar form employ different types of h and therefore differ in meaning; for example, the name of Tjainehebu, Overseer of the King’s Ships in the 26th Dynasty, may have meant “Descendant of the ibis.” In the Late Period, both male and female forms of the name are known and seem to relate strongly to Lower Egypt: for men, to Memphis; for women, to Behbeit el-Hagar and Khemmis of the Delta. Faces can be put to two of the men, leading to a discussion of the verisimilitude of ancient Egyptian likenesses. Overall, the article presents an unpublished shabti with six known parallels that imply at least three moulds. The analysis triggered by the unusual name of its owner encompasses philology, onomastics, biography and portraiture, fields that are not usually considered together. It reprises in English earlier research (including much published in other languages) while collating and updating it with recent developments, including the possible need to amend pronunciation of the name to Tehabu/Tainhabu. One outcome of the study is a challenge to the published assignation of this owner’s shabtis as female.

Shabtis usually dates from the First Intermediate period till the end of Ptolemaic Dynasty. They changed their shapes, forms, texts and position of agricultural implements a lot throughout history. These changes were classified in various typologies during 20th century (L. Speleers (1923), W. M. F. Petrie (1935), J. Monnet Saleh (1970), J. F. Aubert (1974), and H. Schneider (1977)). By the time of Ptolemaic kings their main role almost disappeared and since then they became one of the main cultic symbols of Isaic cults (Isis, Osiris, Serapis, Harpocrates, Anubis, Bes etc.) which first spread all over East Mediterranean, North Africa and South-East Europe and later during Roman Empire to the north to the limes of Empire and beyond. Shabtis were trade as one of the Egyptian cult symbols; they were manufactured in Egypt but also in various workshops in main cultic centres of the Roman provinces. Shabtis from Graeco-Roman periods are not the same as previous one, they are commonly classified as “fakes” which are, in my opinion, definitely not, so they need to be classified according form, decorations, headdress, implements, text and position of text, and material from which they were crafted (stone, pottery, glass, faience, wood etc.). Such shabtis deserve to be re-interpreted as one of the main sources for diffusion of Egyptian cult deities.

This paper deals with three main topics: 1) classification of shabtis from Late and Graeco-Roman periods; 2) diffusion during Graeco-Roman period and overview of their new main role, and 3) their production and problem of so-called “fakes”.

Key words: shabtis, typology (classification), late period, Greco-Roman period, Croatian collections

"A Burial of the Great Royal Wife Nefertiti at Amarna? The funerary figure of Nefertiti" - French and anhanced version of the article: Christian E. Loeben, "Eine Bestattung der großen königlichen Gemahlin Nofretete in Amarna?", MDAIK 42 (1986), 99-107, Taf. 6-7. - Joining two fragments in the Louvre (AF 9904) and Brooklyn (35.51) to reconstruct a shabti of Queen Nefertiti. The PDF also includes the different interpretation of the two fragments by J.-L. Bovot. - (in French)

The first section of this paper focuses on two unpublished objects: a faience plaque constituted by seven pieces (E 32591) and one shabti (E 32787), both currently preserved at the Louvre Museum, Paris, and belonging to the same owner, the renep-priest Horemheb, son of Ankhpakhered. The objects are dated back to the beginning of the Late Period (c. 664-600 BC). The priest Horemheb, son of Ankhpakhered, is already known from several other shabtis: six of them belong to a private collection and have been recently published; another several shabtis have been offered for sale at auctions and they are scattered across private collections. The second section of the paper attempts to gather and update all the available documentation related to the specific sacerdotal renep-title in the Third province of Lower Egypt. Finally, from the analyses of the sources, the paper aims to shed new light on the specific sacerdotal renep-title and its relationship with other sacerdotal titles, administrative and religious offices, often connected to the Western Delta region.

This report describes for the first time the surviving (upper) portions of three 26th-Dynasty shabtis made for Wedjat-Hor, son of Ashsedjemes. Shabtis A and C are clearly from the same mould and inscribed by the same scribe; shabti B is the product of a different mould and scribe. Some orthographic idiosyncrasies are shared, whereas others are specific to each scribe. Ashsedjemes ("He who calls, she will hear") is an uncommon female name of the Late Period known from a 27th-Dynasty demotic marriage contract. On shabtis A and C, her title "Mistress of the House" comes perilously close to being downgraded to "Mistress of the Shelter/Yard," while shabti B inflicts an even greater indignity by miswriting her name as Sedjemash, "Servant." An unusual insertion after the mother's name, found on all three shabtis, is discussed. The shabti spell is substantially abridged and omits the central bloc of the canonical (i.e., Schneider VIIA) clause sequence. To compensate for the lack of a Summons clause, a novel change is made to the grammar of the Duty clause. Wedjat-Hor's name features three times in the short inscription, more often than is usual even in the full-length shabti spell.

ABSTRACT: This lecture aims at providing an overview of mortuary practices, customs, and beliefs during the Middle Kingdom, with a main focus on middle class to especially upper class tombs.  The lecture begins by providing a brief overview on the various basic types of Middle Kingdom elite tombs, such as mastaba tombs and rock-cut mastabas in flat areas and desert plateau tops, rock-cut tombs in the Nile Valley, and some group burial complexes on mound tops in the delta.  The lecture continues by furnishing an example of tomb chapels, their architectural components, fittings, decoration, decorative placement, various components, genres, and their significance and meaning, using the Dynasty 12 tomb of the nomarch (governor) Khnumhotep II as the main example, but adding further illustrations of ka-spirit statues, offering tables, and the Ancient Egyptian (biased) scribal views on various professions and industries in the Satire of Trades.  The last part of the lecture looks at burial chambers and their fittings, including sarcophagi, box coffins (including different styles, decoration and inscriptions, Coffin Texts, guide maps to the afterlife, etc.), anthropoid coffins, face masks, mummies, canopic jars and chests, funerary jewellery (i.e., with protective/ritual amulets), shabti figurines, statuettes, furnishings, adornment (non-ritual jewellery), cosmetic kits, games, professional and personal items (e.g., musical instruments; tool kits; hunting equipment; weaponry), models (e.g., weaponry; housing [i.e., soul houses; house model]; food; offering tables; Abydos pilgrimage boat [with a reference to tomb chapel decoration]).  The lecture ends with a series of summary text slides. UPDATED: 15 April 2023: Adding more slides/images, editing/revising, re-formatting, and adding in a section on poorer burials (Thebes; Qau; Abydos; Buhen), plus a selected bibliography at the end.

This is an extract of the official catalogue of 500 items belonging to the Accademia dei Concordi in Rovigo, Italy edited by this institution and Fondazione Cariparo. The Egyptian collection holds among the most important items: five Old Kingdom blocks, five epigraphic stelae (Middle-Kingdom till Graeco-Roman Period), two parts of cartonnage and parts of coffins, a funerary mask, a wooden Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, the famous Iahmes Sapair's ushabti case. Moreover, the museum dispays an important collection of shabtis, several amulets, bronze figurines, figured reliefs with Bes, three rare Osirian reliquaries and two mummies.

Quelques considérations générales sur les coffrets à shabtis/oushebtis, suivies de la présentation de quelques coffrets et éléments de coffrets conservés dans des collections genevoises (Musée d’art et d’histoire de la Ville de Genève et Fondation Gandur pour l’Art). On y relève les noms de Meripet et du prêtre d’Amon Amenemheb/Pahemnetjer, également connu par une figurine conservée au Vatican (Nouvel Empire), et ceux du prêtre de Montou Horsaiset et de Hahaty, ainsi qu’une paroi anonyme (Troisième Période intermédiaire).

The present study examines a repertoire of ushabti
figurines found by the Middle Kingdom Theban Project
(Freie Universität Berlin – Universidad de Alcalá
Madrid) in the area of Deir el-Bahari during its first
two seasons. The archaeological works in the funerary
complex of the vizier Ipi (TT 315) permitted the
recovery of a collection of 508 ushabtis in complete
and fragmentary state. These figurines have been
typologically classified into four main groups with
several subdivisions in diverse categories. The dating
of these figurines comprises a period from the
21st Dynasty until the Early Ptolemaic Period. This
material would have belonged to burials resulting
from the second occupation of this particular sector
of the necropolis from the late New Kingdom onwards.
At that time, some of the tombs and courtyards
of the high dignitaries of the late 11th Dynasty
and early Middle Kingdom would have been reused
for numerous burials.

The hundreds of faience shabtis in an individual Late Period burial demanded a significant production effort within a workshop. Petrie’s discovery of thousands of molds for small faience objects in Amarna (1891-92) and Memphis (1908-13) led scholars such as Alfred Lucas (1962) and Hans Schneider (1977) to conclude that the majority of faience shabtis were mold-made and then manually detailed as needed. Beyond this, little information remains regarding the exact production methods. Using stylistic analyses and numerous measurements made during my two-year study of the 305 shabtis from the burial assemblage for a wealthy woman named Meretites (380 to 250 BC.; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art), I determined more precisely how they were manufactured. Within a single atelier, four separate teams of craftsmen each produced a distinct stylistic group of shabtis from start to finish. Besides employing different molds, each team completed the desired detailing of the baskets, hands, and tools, an...

While examining the shabti-jars housed in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the Brit-ish Museum (London), I noticed a striking resemblance between the vessels London EA 58773-76 and another six vessels stored in other museums and collections around the world (the Cleveland Museum of Art, the North Carolina Museum, and a private collection in Tübingen).
This paper will focus on two issues: firstly, a description of the exact features of the London EA 58773-76 vessels, through comparison with other jars that are similar in structure and that still contain shabtis. Secondly, through comparisons of the hieroglyphic inscriptions and titles written on the Lon-don vessel walls, I will show that these vessels belonged to the same priest called Hori who is named on the other six vessels. Furthermore, through the dating of the vessels, this paper will provide evi-dence that Hori was working during the 20th Dynasty at Thoth’s Temple in Hermopolis.

Shabtis were one of the most enduring forms of ancient Egyptian visual culture, used over millennia, and are now a mainstay of museum collections. However, their popularity on the antiquities market has contributed to their status among Egyptologists as the domain of collectors, of limited interest to archaeology. The popularity of shabtis among collectors is based on their material qualities as small, personified objects, exhibiting small variations on a common form. This aesthetic appeal is not confined to modern collectors, but can be traced back to accounts of 17 th century travelers in Egypt. The appeal of shabtis is also cross-cultural: archaeological evidence demonstrates that shabtis travelled across the ancient Mediterranean world, where they were acquired for reasons other than provisioning work in the afterlife. The aesthetic appeal of shabtis is therefore not restricted to modern collectors, but shared by people from a wide range of cultures and time periods. We might therefore expect that the material form of shabtis also had meaning for the Egyptians. Utilizing art historical theory on the appeal of miniatures and collections, this paper will argue that one of the reasons for shabtis' enduring importance in Egyptian funerary religion, and for their stylistic development, is due to their material qualities, which over time were exploited by Egyptian craftsmen. The cross-cultural, cross-temporal appeal of shabtis should not be dismissed by scholars, but embraced as evidence of what a material approach to these ubiquitous objects can tell us about shabtis' visual impact on ancient Egyptians.