Coffin for a Shabty
- Medium: Limestone
- Place Made: Egypt
- Dates: ca. 1539-1400 B.C.E.
- Dynasty: first half of XVIII Dynasty
- Period: New Kingdom
- Dimensions: Dimensions of Closed Coffin: 7 x 7 x 15 1/4 in. (17.8 x 17.8 x 38.7 cm)
- Collections: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art
- Museum Location:
This item is not on view - Accession Number: 37.128E
- Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
- Image: Overall, 37.128E_closed_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2006
The Egyptians believed that the dead could be called upon to produce food in the Netherworld by dredging canals and harvesting crops. Shabtis are funerary figures that could be magically activated to be eternal insurance policies and, at least in some sense, protective amulets against posthumous labor. The Egyptians came to hope and believe that when the gods called upon a deceased person to do such work, his or her shabti would do the work instead.
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Shawabtis
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