Shabti of Djedhor

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This small funerary figure (shabti) comes from the tomb of a wealthy family. The patriarch, the Priest ("God's Father") Djedhor, was buried with his wife Nebtaihet and two other individuals in one chamber, with their three sons in the second.. At the head of Djedhor's stone sarcophagus were two shabti boxes, one containing 198 figures and the second holding 196. These shabtis were of two different sizes (the smaller ones as here and larger ones, see 02.4.149). They are all mummiform, with back pillars and pedestals. They are all mummiform, with back pillars and pedestals. Each wears a curved "divine" beard, and holds a pick in the left hand and a hoe in the right. Slung over the left shoulder is a round-bottomed basket, held there by a rope in the right hand. Some, like 02.4.159, are inscribed with black ink. A large number of additional shabtis, much cruder in form, were found under one of the shabti boxes.

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