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Details
LOT 0466
Egyptian White Faience Shabti
PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 332-30 B.C.
3 in. (18 grams, 78 mm).
Modelled in the half-round with rounded facial features, lappet wig, false beard and crossed arms holding a pick and a hoe. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Ex H. Norry collection, 1980s-1990s.
Literature
Cf. Stewart, H.M., Egyptian Shabtis, Princes Risborough, 1995, item 32.
Footnotes
One of the primary purposes of shabti figures was to carry out heavy manual tasks on behalf of a person in the afterlife, and they were often depicted with necessary implements in their hands, such as baskets, picks, and hoes. Over time, the number of shabtis in a standard elite burial increased, from one in the Eighteenth Dynasty to several in the Nineteenth Dynasty, to one for every day of the year by the Third Intermediate Period. The high number of shabtis remained a feature in the Late and Ptolemaic Periods.
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