Shabti Box and Shabtis of Gautsoshen

Shabti Box and Shabtis of Gautsoshen

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The low square box with two flat lids is made of thin boards of wood, white-washed on the outside. The interior is divided into two sections, and each lid is fastened by a tenon and two pegs. Designed to hold shabtis, small figures meant to work on behalf of the deceased in the afterlife, it is different in shape from the other shabti boxes found in the same tomb (see for example 25.3.20.1a–c). Along with fragments of a second example, this box was found near a deposit of 374 unusual wood shabtis inscribed for Gautsoshen (see 25.3.22a–f), and so is assumed to belong with this burial.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Shabti Box and Shabtis of GautsoshenShabti Box and Shabtis of GautsoshenShabti Box and Shabtis of GautsoshenShabti Box and Shabtis of GautsoshenShabti Box and Shabtis of Gautsoshen

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.