An essay from my Art in Ancient Egypt course.
Ancient Egyptians prepared their deceased for the afterlife in many ways, ranging in detail
for the royal and the common. The most commonly found preparations are ushabti figures,
which originate from the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt; the Egyptians produced so many
of these figures that almost every museum today owns a couple of shabtis to display.
However, on the other end of the spectrum, monuments were less frequently found and
only built for the pharaohs and Gods. In this paper, the temple Ramesseum (Fig II) is in
comparison with the shabti. The ushabti discussed in this paper (Fig I) comes from the
Madison Art Collection, acquired from 2003. The shabti, referred to as the “Tomb Servant,”
is 26 x 9 x 10 cm, made of limestone, is mostly tan in color, and dates back to around 656
BCE in the 25th Dynasty. The face is painted red, the collar piece is painted on, and
hieroglyphs are written on the front of the body, which read, “She makes beautiful offerings
to the Osiris.” This shabti is larger than most other shabti figures found, though life-size
shabtis have also been found in tombs.
Ushabti roughly translates to “one who answers” (Teeter), as their purpose was to answer
to the call of whoever’s tomb they were buried with. According to the Madison Art
Collective that houses this shabti, the Egyptians made around 365 shabtis for some
individual tombs, ensuring one servant for each day in the afterlife. With the idea that these
figures were produced in mass starting from the Old Kingdom, it’s very likely that they
didn’t represent real servants who died. The deceased who would own ushabtis wouldn’t
be a servant, but rather someone of higher rank that would need servants in the afterlife.
The Art Institute of Chicago would claim that everyone except the poorest citizens would
own shabtis in their tombs for the afterlife. This is why they are the most common
artifact found from Ancient Egypt to this day.
Unlike the shabti figure, the temple of Ramesseum was built specifically in honor of
Ramses II, the third pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, also known as the longest reigning
pharaoh in all of Ancient Egypt, and a great warrior king. An archeological research from
Guy Lecuyot in 2001 claims that the name of the temple was “The Temple of Millions of
Years” (Lecuyot). This temple was a point of inspiration for future pharaoh’s temples.
It was called the Ramesseum after it was rediscovered in the 18th century. The Ramesseum
was built for Ramses II and the god Amun. The walls of the Ramesseum depict scenes
of Ramses II smiting his enemies in the Battle of Kadesh and funerary rituals
(The Ramesseum). Discovered in the temple were plenty of ushabti figures (Fig III) meant
to serve Ramses II in the afterlife.
Even while ushabti figures were made for both the common folk and the royal families,
servants were unlikely to receive these figures in their tombs; why would a servant have
servants of their own? A study examining skulls from Egyptian servants found that the
servants were often sacrificed after their pharaoh had died, so they can continue to serve
them in the afterlife (Jarus). The shabtis might not have represented the literal deceased
servants, but they were definitely provided alongside the sacrifice of real servants.
Hundreds of ushabti figures are made for the royal to have a servant for each day of the
year, and that still didn’t meet the quota for pharaohs, so real servants were killed after the
pharaoh passed away.
The range of funerary preparations for the deceased is smaller than expected when
considering the rank of every person in the kingdom, as not everyone even had the chance
to own their own shabti figures. The shabti figure from the Madison Collection belonged
to someone higher rank, maybe a pharaoh or scribe, but that shabti, if it was based on a
real servant, wouldn’t have their own funeral ritual, and would keep living in the afterlife
as a servant to the king.
Fig I: Ushabti "Tomb Servant" Figure, Madison Art Collective
Fig II: Ramsesseum
Fig III: Ushabtis found in the Ramsesseum
