Ushabti Figurines

ritual object · Egypt · Egyptian

Small mummiform figurines placed in Egyptian tombs to perform field labour for the dead in the afterlife, inscribed with spell 6 of the Book of the Dead, in which the figure answers 'here I am' when summoned to work in the fields of the god of the dead. A single burial could hold several hundred, from a modest clay set to the 413 ushabtis buried with Tutankhamun in faience, wood, and stone, each furnished with the tiny hoe and basket of the peasant. The name derives from the Egyptian word meaning 'answerer', and the figures were made from the Middle Kingdom to the Ptolemaic period, their form

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