Shabti of Sherinefer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Inscribed for a man named Sherinefer, this funerary figure, known as a shabti, represents the deceased in festival dress. Sherinefer wears a sheer tunic with elbow-length sleeves, an ankle-length pleated kilt with a starched front panel and a fringed waistband, and a two-tiered wig, elaborately curled and braided. On his ears are large round earrings. Sherinefer crosses his wrists over his chest and holds agricultural tools in his hands. A grain basket is slung over one shoulder. An inscription begins on the front of the kilt and continues around the sides and back; this reads: "The illuminated one, Osiris Sherinefer, says: "O you shabti, if Osiris Sherinefer is allotted to do any work that is done in the necropolis, to cultivate fields, to irrigate canal banks, to transport sand (from east to west, 'Here am I,' you shall say)." Part of Spell 6 from a collection of texts known colloquially as the Book of the Dead, this guarantees that the shabti figure will work on Sherinefer’s behalf in the afterlife, which in turn will help to provide him with food for eternity.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art