Images(3)

Head from a Shabti of Akhenaten

Artist Unknown

Datecirca 1352–1336 BCE

MediumLimestone

Dimensions3 1/8 x 2 7/8 x 2 1/4 in. (7.9 x 7.3 x 5.7 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of the James G. Hanes Memorial Fund

Object numberG.74.2.8

On View

On view

Label TextIn the sixth year of his reign, Akhenaten imposed a drastic religious reform, sweeping aside centuries-old deities for the monotheistic worship of Aten, the sun disk. Akhenaten nevertheless furnished his tomb at el-Amarna in the traditional way, simply without the references to Osiris and other funerary deities. At least two hundred shabtis were prepared for his burial; however, none survived antiquity intact. The reform imposed by Akhenaten did not survive his reign. The old gods were reinstated, and his successors pulled down his monuments to reuse materials and defaced reliefs and inscriptions to eradicate memories of him.

The terms shabti and ushabti refer to small funerary figurines used at very specific periods and are not interchangeable. Their function evolved somewhat over the millennia, but from the New Kingdom onward, they served as magic servant statuettes that worked on behalf of their owners in the afterlife.

Stored in ceramic jars or wooden boxes, a full set would include 365 servant figurines and 36 overseers, identifiable by their apron, totaling 401. Including servant statuettes in tombs may derive from the sacrificial burial of servants in some predynastic- and early dynastic-period graves—an inhumane practice the Egyptians quickly abandoned.

[C. Rocheleau]ProvenanceLevi de Benzion, Cairo, Egypt, prior to 1965; Mathias Komor Fine Arts & Antiquities, New York, NY; sold to NCMA, 1974.
Published ReferencesConstant DeWit, "Une tête d'oushebti d'Amenophis IV au Musée du Caire," Chronique d'Égypte Tome XL, no. 79 (January 1965), 26, illus. (b-w) fig. 16.

Geoffrey T. Martin, Archaeological Survey Of Egypt, Thirty-fifth Memoir. The Royal Tomb at El-Amarna, part I, The Objects (Egypt Exploration Society, 1974), 72, no. 255 and illus. (b-w) pl. 18.

"Recent Acquisitions," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 13, nos. 1 and 2 (1975), cat. no. 93, illus. (b-w) 33.

Gazette des Beaux-Arts, no. 1286 (March 1976), 32, illus. 117.

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 38.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 8.

North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Autumn 1988), illus. (b-w) 23.Mary Ellen Soles, Head from a Shawabti of Akhenaten, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 17, illus. (color).

Jean-Luc Bovot, Les serviteurs funéraires royaux et princiers de l'Ancienne Égypte (Paris: Réunion des musées régionaux/Musée du Louvre, 2003), mentioned 75.

Caroline M. Rocheleau, entry for Head from a Shabti of Akhenaten, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 34, illus. (color) 35.

Caroline M. Rocheleau, Ancient Egyptian Art [Systematic Catalogue of the Collection] (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2012), cat. no. 11, illus. (color) 29.

North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection," (Raleigh, NC; North Carolina Museum of Art, 2024), illus. (color) 147.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, Egyptian Gallery, April 22, 1974-February 13, 1978.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions,” November 23, 1975-February 1, 1976.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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