The ushabti , also called shabti shabtis

The ushabti , also called shabti shabtis or with a number of variant spellings , plural ancient Egypt ushabtiu was a funerary figurine used in ancient Egypt. Oushebtis were placed in tombs among the grave goods and were intended to replace the deceased, he / she is required to do manual labor in the afterlife . The figures usually carried a hoe on his shoulder and a basket on the back. They were usually written by the use of hieroglyphics typically found on the legs.

The practice of using shawabties originally from the Old Kingdom ( 2600-2100 BC) with the use of the reserve size heads in limestone, which were buried with the mummy. Most were minor ushabtis size and many products in multiples - they sometimes covered the floor around a sarcophagus. Oushebtis exceptional are larger , or produced by an of-a -kind work of a master.

Due to the banality of the shabti timeperiods by all Egyptian , and the desire to museums around the world to represent ancient Egyptian art objects, the shabti is one of the objects most frequently represented in the displays of Egyptology . Produced in very large numbers, ushabtis with beetles, are the most numerous of all ancient Egyptian antiquities to survive.

The term shabti applies to these figures before the twenty-first dynasty of Egypt , but after the end of the First Intermediate Period, and really only the figures listed in chapter six of the Book of the Dead . Otherwise, they could be better defined by the generic term , funerary figurines.

The shawabties were figures of servants who carried out the tasks required of the deceased in the underworld. The ushabtis were not effective because of their art, they were effective because they had inscriptions on them. The writing was thought to change thoughts and wishes into action. Therefore, it was necessary for them to have shawabties owners name on them, and they were also in a hieratic sentence send them to action.

The scribe Nebseni , the designer in the temple of Ptah, said: ( Oh you shabti figure Nebseni scribe , son of the scribe Thena , and the lady of the house Muthrestha if I am called , or if I tried to make a work regardless of the work that is to be done in the underworld - behold, for your opposition will be canceled - by a man in turn, dropped the judgment on you instead of on me always , for sowing the fields , fill streams with water , and bring the sand from east to west .)

The figure Shabti answers , ( I'm here and will come when you offer me .)

The shabtis were a distinct class of funerary figurines in the region of Thebes during the New Kingdom.

The term ushabti became common after the 21st Dynasty and remained in service until the Ptolemaic era..

It is believed by some that the ushabti term means (disciple ) or  voice  in ancient Egyptian , because the figurine " answered" to the deceased and made all the routine tasks of daily life of his master in the beyond that the gods had provided for them. , Although it is difficult to reconcile this derivation with the form of shabtis .

A shabti Pharaoh of Egypt Pinedjem I at the Brooklyn Museum .

Registration Shabti often contain Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead , translated by :

Illuminates the Osiris [name of deceased  , whose word is truth . Hail Shabti Figure! If the Osiris [name of deceased ] will not be decreed to do all the work that must be done in Khert - Neter , let everything that stands in the way be removed from him - whether to plow the fields , or to fill the channels with water , or make sand from the East to the West.