Ushabti were funerary figurines placed
in tombs
among the grave goods in Ancient Egypt
and
were intended to act as servant figures
that
carried out the tasks required of the
deceased in
the underworld. Very often they carry
inscriptions in hieroglyphs typically
concentrated
on the lower part of the body, which is
important
because of the ancient Egyptian belief
that
anything written down was true and was
thought
to change wishes and thoughts into
actions.
Therefore, it was necessary for the
owner's
name to be inscribed on an ushabti,
along with a
phrase sending the ushabti into action.
Additionally, early ushabtis were
sometimes
made from wax, though later figurines
were
often made of less perishable materials
such as
stone, terracotta, metal, glass and,
most
frequently, glazed earthenware
(faiance). The
practice of using ushabtis originated in
the Old
Kingdom (c. 2600 to 2100 BCE) with the
use of
life-sized reserve heads made from
limestone,
which were buried with the mummy. Most
ushabtis were small in size and produced
in
multiples; sometimes they were thus
numerous
as to fill the floor of the chamber
around the
sarcophagus. Exceptional ushabtis are of
larger
size and were produced as a one of-a-
kind
master work.
The usbabti in our collection dates to
the
Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, which was
the
last native dynasty to rule Egypt before
the
Persian conquest in 525 B.C. The
dynasty's
reign (664–525 BC) is also called the
Saite
Period after the city of Sais, where
pharaohs had
their capital, and marks the beginning
of the
Late Period of ancient Egypt.
- (PH.0235)
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