Shabti

The upper part of a mummiform shabti of the 30th Dynasty wearing a striated tripartite wig, and a divine beard. The beard is damaged, but presumably it would have been plaited. The arms are crossed on the chest, and the hands emerge from a shroud to hold a pick in the left, and a hoe in the right. The right hand also holds the twisted cord for a basket that is carried behind the left shoulder. The face is damaged, but sufficient detail remains to show the eyes with cosmetic lines and brows are modelled in relief. The figure has a dorsal pillar. The fragment has four horizontal rows of inscription naming the owner as Haf-neches(?), followed by Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead: “The illuminated one, the Osiris, Haf–neches (?), born to Hap–men–res(?), justified, he speaks: O, this shabti, if one counts the Osiris, to do all the works that are to be done there in the realm of the dead – now indeed obstacles are implanted therewith – as a man at his duties, ‘here [I am,’] …