13 | Shabtis

‘O shabti, if the deceased is called upon to do all the works that are to be done in the realm of the dead… you shall say, “Here I am, I will do it”’.

This spell comes from Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead.

It was inscribed on small statuettes to ensure they came into existence to act as surrogates for a deceased person in the afterlife.

The spell calls them shabti – a name that perfectly describes what they were supposed to do – shabti meaning ‘the one who responds’.

Shabtis had multiple meanings.

They were not only created to perform various essential tasks for the deceased, but they could also represent either the deceased himself or the donor of the shabti.

Here are 3 shabtis.

Notice they are fashioned as mummified individuals, with only the head, hair and hands emerging from the body.

The wooden shabti even has its own coffin.

The coffin and statuette are carved with hieroglyphs of the shabti spell as well as the name of the deceased, Amenemope Ipy.

This shabti was meant to stand in for Amenemope to complete any tasks asked by the gods in the afterlife.

What are some of these tasks?

Well, a few examples have been preserved in spells inscribed on other shabtis of the New Kingdom.

They included a range of agricultural labour, from irrigation to the planting and sowing of crops and even the endless removal of sand.

It seems these shabtis were made around the same time as the funerary models of the Middle Kingdom.

But, while ancient Egyptians stopped carving funerary models after a time, they never stopped making shabtis.

How many a person could include in their burial was largely dependent on how much they could afford.

The wealthiest included more and more shabtis in their tombs, even including managers to control their large groups.

They continued to be made of wood, but were also made from stone, glass and the distinctive, blue glass-like ceramic material known as Egyptian faience.

Unlike the wooden shabti proxy for the deceased, the two brightly glazed shabtis are servants.

One is for Merit-Amun and the other for Nespaneferher.

These shabtis will be working in the fields in the afterlife, with a hoe held in each hand and a basket on the back.

They were found in a tomb at Deir el-Bahari of Thebes, where 153 priestesses and priests of the god Amun were buried.

These shabtis were unearthed with 363 others to make a complete set of 365 – one for each day of the year.

They were accompanied by another 36 overseer or manager shabtis.

Later, overseer shabtis had whips, to make sure the workers completed their tasks.

For those who could afford to have shabtis, their status in life would be replicated in the afterlife.