Shabti of Iset

Mummiform shabti wearing a plain tripartite wig painted blue except for the lower ends of the lappets that are yellow with red horizontal lines. The arms are crossed above the waist. They are not indicated in the carving but are simply outlined in red on a yellow ground. The hands appear to hold stylised hoes. A broad wesekh–collar is painted in red on a yellow ground across the chest. A rectangular square–hatched basket is painted in red on a yellow ground on the back of the shabti. A smaller square– hatched basket is carried behind the right shoulder. A pair of small water pots, suspended from yoke with crossed cords, are painted in red behind the left shoulder. The round face is simply carved. Eyes with brows are added in black and white, although the paint is rather faded. The sides and back of the shabti appear to originally been painted in white although only traces of the colour remain. A vertical panel of a black painted inscription, framed with red lines, and on a yellow ground. The name of the owner of the shabti, Iset, is written in hieratic below the hieroglyphic preliminary. Transliteration and translation of the inscription: sHD Wsir As.t, "The illuminated one, the Osiris, Iset". It seems highly like that the shabti is from Gurob. Brunton and Engelbach, who excavated at the site in 1920, published several pottery shabtis with name Iset written in hieratic. Brunton and Engelbach note a shabti that they refer to as a ‘stock’ shabti where the name was left blank for a name to be added. This probably explains mixture of a hieroglyphic and hieratic texts with the present shabti for Iset, the name being added at a later date, and by a different scribe.