Shabti of Djed-bastet-i(wef)-ankh

An ‘overseer’ shabti of mould-made green glazed faience, wearing a small kilt of everyday life with a projecting frontal apron. The head wears a short bipartite wig with a seshed headband tied at the back added in black. Instead of the more usual iconography of one arm being held across the waist with the other pendant down the side of the body, the hands meet above the waist. Clenched fists hold a pair of whips that are added in black. Unusually for an ‘overseer,’ the figure carries a square–hatched basket on the back. This, and the positioning of the arms and hands, suggest this to be a worker shabti that has the frontal apron added as a modification. The face is simply defined, and eyes are added as two blobs of black paint. A vertical column of hieroglyphs on the front of the figure reads, “The Osiris, Djed–Bastet–i(wef)–ankh, justified”. Thought to be from the Liverpool University Institute of Archaeology excavations at Abydos; but could be from John Garstang’s earlier work at Abydos for the Egyptian Research Account.