2019.354: Ushabti of Nesbanebdjed

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2019.354

Title

Ushabti of Nesbanebdjed

Classification

Sculpture

Work Type

statuette, sculpture

Date

380-343 BCE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Africa, Egypt (Ancient)

Period

Late Period, Dynasty 30, to Ptolemaic

Culture

Egyptian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/367944

Location

Location

Level 3, Room 3740, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Ancient Egypt: Art for Eternity

View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Faience

Technique

Mold-made

Dimensions

19.7 cm (7 3/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• label: Wraps around front and sides of Ushabti: [1] sHD wsir imy-xnt wp nTr.wi Hm-nTr wsir m anp xnty Hmw nTr imy-r
  [2] wab sxmt HAt-mHyt Hm-nTr bA-nb-Dd ns-bA-nb-Dd ms [n] Sntyt mAa-xrw Dd=f i.wSb
  [3] ty ipn ir ip.tw wsir imy-xnt wp nTr.wi Hm-nTr wsir m
  [4] anp xnty Hmw nTr imy-r wab sxmt HAt-mHyt Hm-nTr bA-nb-Dd ns-bA-nb-Dd
  [5] ms [n] Sntyt mAa-xrw [r irt] kAt [-nbt irt im] m Xrt-nTr is.t[w.tn]
  [6] Hw sDbw im m s r Xrt=f
  [7] mk -sw mk -wi kA=tn ip.tw
  [8] r nw -nb irt [tw] im r srwD sxwt
  [9] r smHy wDbw r Xnt Say
  [10] imntt iAbtt Ts[-pXr] irtt mk -wi kA=tn
  [1] May the Osiris, the chamberlain, the one who separates the Two Gods, the priest of Osiris in Thmuis, the foremost of priests, the overseer of [2] the wab-priests of Sekhmet in Mendes, the priest of Banebdjed, Nesbanebdjed, born to Shentyt, justified, shine. He says: O these [3] ushabtis, if counted upon by the Osiris, the chamberlain, the one who separates the Two Gods, the priest of Osiris in [4] Thmuis, the foremost of priests, the overseer of the priests of Sekhmet in Mendes, the priest of Banebdjed, Nesbanebdjed, [5] born to Shentyt, justified, [to do all] the works that are to be done [there] in the necropolis; if [you] are summoned [6] to defeat an obstacle implanted there, as a man at his duties, [7] "here he is, here I am," you shall say when you are counted upon, [8] "at any time to serve [you] there, to maintain the fields, [9] to irrigate the riverbanks, to ferry the sand of [10] the west [to] the east and vice[-versa], Here I am," you shall say.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[Ralph M. Blanchard Antiquities, Cairo, (by 1905)], sold; to Miss. Richardson, (1905 - ?). [Marjorie Jones, Suffolk Gallery, Camden, Maine], sold; to [Ross Levett Antiques, Thomaston, Maine (by 2011)], sold; to [Ward & Company Works of Art, New York, (2011-2012)], sold; to Eric Kaufman, Weston, CT, (2012-2019), gift; to the Harvard Art Museums.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Eric R. Kaufman, L. '67

Accession Year

2019

Object Number

2019.354

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Light blue-green faience ushabti of the overseer of the priests of Sekhmet in Mendes and priest of the ram god Banebdjed, Nesbanebdjed. The ushabti wears a braided, curved false beard, identifying him with the god Osiris. His hands are crossed on the front of his chest and the edge of his cloak is visible between them. The presence of the cloak further identifies the figure as mummiform and therefore deceased. The ushabti holds a pick in his left hand; in his right hand he holds a hoe and the cord for a bag of seeds that drapes over his left shoulder. A pillar is present on the back of the statuette. The back-pillar, seed bag over the left shoulder, possession of two different implements in the hands, and “Greek” smile are all stylistic indicators of a Late Period date. Ten lines of text in horizontal registers, consisting of the ushabti spell with the name and titles of Nesbanebdjed, surround the body.

Commentary

Nesbanebdjed’s burial was excavated at Tell er-Rub’a (ancient Mendes) in the Nile Delta by British Egyptologist James E. Quibell. The tomb was paved with limestone blocks. 360 faience ushabtis, and fragments of others, were recovered from the tomb. They comprised five types: 15 with a “very well modelled” horizontal inscription--of which this ushabti was one; 322 with a T-shaped inscription on the front of the body; 10 with 6 lines of inscription (presumably horizontal), “rudely made”; 5 with one line of inscription (presumably vertical); and 10 with no inscription, “rudely made.” All of those with inscriptions bore Nesbanebdjed’s name. Quibell suggested that the uninscribed ones, of which there were a large number of fragments, may have belonged to a burial discovered next to Nesbanebdjed’s, which is presumed to have been looted in antiquity.

For other ushabtis belonging to Nesbanebdjed, see:
•With the horizontal inscription: Royal Athena Galleries, New York (Art of the Ancient World, vol. 20, 2009, 87, no. 197)
•With the T-shaped inscription: one in Leiden (Schneider, Shabtis, 1977, II 184-5 and III pl. 61, with list of examples in other museums and collections), one at the British Museum (EA54532), two at the Frank H. McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and another sold by Sothebys New York December 2008, lot 4.

Bibliography
M. James Edward Quibell, “Note on a tomb found at Tell er Robâ,” Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 3 (Cairo 1902), 245-249
Jacques François Aubert and Liliane Aubert, Statuettes égyptiennes (Paris 1974), 255, pl. 66, figs. 155-156
Hans D. Schneider, Shabtis (Leiden 1977), vol. 2, 184-185, and vol. 3, pl. 61
Jean-Luc Chappaz and Jacques Chamay, Reflets du divin: Antiquités pharaoniques et classiques d'une collection privée (Geneva 2001), no. 73c
Glenn Janes, Shabtis: A Private View (Paris 2002), no. 96.

Exhibition History

• 32Q: 3740 Egyptian, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/01/2022 - 05/01/2026
• 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 01/02/2022

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