Shabtis are among the most numerous of Egyptian antiquities, as they played a major role in funeral rites. These figurines are buried with the deceased, intended to carry out menial labour on their owner’s behalf in the afterlife. To reflect this function, they are usually depicted in the form of a mummy with crossed hands holding tools – baskets, mattocks and hoes. Our shabti is a special form of shabti which appeared in the early Third Intermediate Period. Instead of holding tools, it has a hand to the side and the other holding a whip. These shabtis are ‘overseers’ who manage a team of ten worker shabtis each. For instance, a typical elite burial would then have thirty-six overseers to keep control of the three hundred and sixty-five ordinary workers. However, from the Late Period ‘overseer’ types were no longer popular. Some shabtis were inscribed with a spell in which the deceased calls the shabtis to work called the “Shabti spell”. This spell is taken from chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead and is also attested in the Coffin text spell 472. However, most shabtis like ours were simply inscribed with the title and name of the owner.
To discover more about Egyptian shabtis, please visit our relevant blog post: How Ancient Egyptian Shabtis and Funerary Statuettes Watched Over the Dead.