Shabti of Qenamun

Mummiform shabti wearing a voluminous plain tripartite wig. The arms and hands are not indicated in the modelling. A wesekh–collar is worn across the chest comprising of four row of beads on strands. The face is well defined in the carving. The eyes have long cosmetic lines and brows in relief. The head has an upright pose with the chin being slightly raised. The face is flanked by a pair of well modelled ears. The shoulders and upper torso have six horizontal bands of neatly incised hieroglyphic inscription naming the owner as Qenamun followed by Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead (the ‘shabti spell’). Translation of the inscription: “The illuminated one, the Scribe, Qenamun, he speaks: O, these shabtis, if one counts, Qenamun, to do all works to be done there in the realm of the dead – as a man at his duties – now indeed obstacles are implanted there for him, to cultivate the fields, to irrigate the river banks, to transport by boat the sand of the east to the west, if one counts concerning you, at any time daily, ‘here I am,’ you shall say”. Transliteration of the inscription: sHD sS Qn-Imn Dd.f i SAwAb.ty ipn ir ip.tw Qn-Imn m kA.t nb.t ir.t m Xr.t-nTr m s Hr.wt.f is.t(w) Hw n.f sDb.w im r srwD sx.t smH.yt wDb.w r Xn.t say n iAb.tt r imn.tt ip.tw r.k r nw nb m.k w(i) kA.k. The style of the shabti is very comparable with one excavated in Sudan at Sai Island, Chamber 6 in Tomb 26 during the AcrossBorders 2017 season led by Professor Julia Budka. The shabti is inscribed an overseer of goldsmiths called Khnummose and belongs to a homogenous group of five stone shabtis from Egyptian officials, found at Aniba, Toshka and Sai, and identified by Ann Minault-Gout as originating from one workshop, dating from the mid-18th Dynasty (Minault-Gout 2012. ‘La figurine funéraire Saï inv. S. 964 (SNM 23424) et un groupe de quatre chaouabtis de la XVIIIe dynastie de même type’, Cahiers de Recherches de l’Institut de Papyrologie et d’Égyptologie de Lille 29, 189-200. CONDITION NOTE 1998: Scratched surface, surface dirt.