Shabti of Nesbanebdjed

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This shabti comes from a tomb discovered in 1902 at the site of the ancient city of Mendes (Tell el-Rub’a), the capital of Egypt for a short time during the Late Period. One of the two chambers of the tomb was almost completely empty, with only a few fragments of gold leaf left behind. In the second chamber were over 360 complete shabtis, plus a number of fragments. Most were inscribed, like this one, for the priest Nesbanebdjed. Of these shabtis, 322 had the type of T-shaped inscription seen here (see also 10.130.1044a). About 100 of Nesbanebdjed’s shabtis remained in Egypt; many more can be found in museum and private collections around the world. Nesbanebdjed’s priestly titles associate him with the cult of the ram-god Banebdjed, who was part of the Mendesian triad with the goddess Hatmehyt and the child god Harpocrates.

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