
Model yoke
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu (KV 46 in the Valley of the Kings ) was excavated in February 1905 by American financier Theodore M. Davis of Rhode Island. In the division of finds, Davies received two large, sealed storage jars, a pair of sandals, two shabti boxes, three superbly crafted shabtis, and a group of shabti tools including a yoke and baskets, and a hoe. Some of these pieces were given to The MET not long after the tomb was discovered. The others were bequeathed to the Museum after Davis died in 1915. New Kingdom shabtis are often represented holding a pick and a hoe and have one or two baskets represented hanging down their backs. Sometimes, however, actual model tools, like those from Yuya and Tjuyu's tomb, were provided for the shabtis use.
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.