Overseer shabti, inscribed, faience. Padiamun. 12.3cm high. 21st Dynasty, probably from Thebes. Gift from University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Shabtis were put in tombs to do work for their owners in the afterlife. Occasionally also they were placed posthumously in temples and other sacred places so that the owner could take part in the festivals. (But see Poole, F. Slave or Double? A reconsideration of the conception of the shabti in the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period. In C.J. Eyre 1998. 'Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists. Cambridge 3-9th September 1995'. Leuven : Peeters, 893-901). Shabtis were sometimes organised into gangs of workmen, with ten worker shabtis to each overseer shabti. This shabti can be recognised as an overseer by his kilt.
