Shabti Box of Yuya

New Kingdom

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 119

This painted shabti box is inscribed for a man named Yuya whose daughter, Tiye became the principal queen of Amenhotep III. Although not of royal lineage, as in-laws of the king, Yuya and his wife Tjuyu were given a sumptuous burial in the royal cemetery now known as the Valley of the Kings. Their tomb (KV 46) was discovered in 1905 by Theodore M. Davis, an American businessman from Rhode Island. Because the tomb was intact, having escaped detection by ancient robbers, the majority of the objects were retained by the Egyptian Antiquities Service and are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. However, Davies was allowed to keep a small portion of the finds which he later bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum.

Three shabtis (30.8.56–.58) a second shabti box (30.8.60a, b), a group of shabti tools (30.8.61–64), a pair of sandals (10.184.1a, b), and two sealed storage jars (11.155.7, .9) from Yuya and Tjuyu’s tomb are also in the Museum's collection.

Shabti Box of Yuya, Painted wood

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