Worker Shabti of Nauny
Almost 400 small funerary figures known as shabtis were found with Nauny’s burial. These can be seen as avatars, meant to carry out agricultural labor on Nauny’s behalf in the afterlife. Of the 393 shabtis discovered, 355 were workers and 37 were overseers like this one. Recognizable by their long kilts and the flails that they hold, the overseer figures were meant to supervise the worker shabtis (see for example 30.3.26.10) that worked on Nauny’s behalf in the afterlife. On the back pillar, Nauny is named as as a king’s daughter and called an “Osiris,” transformed through the process of mummification and identified with the principal god of the dead. Nauny’s shabtis were divided between seven boxes. Five of these, with their shabtis, were given to The Met, while two were sent to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Artwork Details
- Title: Worker Shabti of Nauny
- Period: Third Intermediate Period
- Dynasty: Dynasty 21
- Reign: reign of Psusennes I
- Date: ca. 1050 B.C.
- Geography: From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Deir el-Bahri, Tomb of Meritamun (TT 358, MMA 65), first corridor, burial of Nauny, MMA excavations, 1928–29
- Medium: Faience
- Dimensions: H. 8.9 × W. 3.3 × D. 2 cm (3 1/2 × 1 5/16 × 13/16 in.)
- Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1930
- Object Number: 30.3.30.39
- Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art
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