Name: Ancient Egyptian Named Faience Ushabti
SKU: AG-14
Price: 1500.00 GBP
Availability: OutOfStock

Ancient Egyptian Named Faience Ushabti

£ 1,500.00

A finely modelled ancient Egyptian, turquoise-glazed, faience shabti, with hieroglyphs to the front. The shabti is shown wearing a tripartite wig and a plaited false beard. As is customary, both hands are crossed at the front, whilst they clasp the familiar worker tools; a pick and hoe. A reed basket hangs behind. The body has been inscribed with hieroglyphs running down vertically across his body, naming the deceased. The moulded details remain very well preserved, with very clear facial features and hieroglyphs. The owner of the shabti is named as Pa-di-Aset. The formula for the shabti is short, typical of Late Period examples and references only the call to Osiris at the start, the deceased’s name and the name of a parent.

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Shabtis or ushabtis are among the most recognisable of all Egyptian antiquities, as they played a major role in funeral rites. Indeed, they were intended to act as servants for the deceased and to perform any manual labour for their master in the afterlife. For this to be possible, it was necessary that each shabti present in the grave had the name of their master inscribed on it and also a summoning spell to which they replied. In fact, shabti – or ushabti – translates as “the answerer”. Such figurines could also be inscribed with passages from the Book of the Dead, the intention of which was to secure safety for the deceased in the afterlife.

To discover more about Egyptian shabtis, please visit our relevant blog post: How Ancient Egyptian Shabtis and Funerary Statuettes Watched Over the Dead.