Kabbalah: Shabti/Ushabti: Resources

Shabti Resources and Internet Web Links

There is a growing number of web sites hosting information about shabti's (ushabti). Some sites now have detailed, 3D images and Quicktime VR Virtual Reality movies. These links are updated as new sources become available.

Wikipedia: Ushabti: Shabti or Ushabti (from the Egyptian language) is a funerary figurine, placed in the tomb of a pharaoh among other items.

Ushabti were intended to act as substitute workers for the deceased should he be called upon to do manual labor. The name means "answerer", and they were to answer to the pharaoh's demands.

Ushabti were used from the Middle Kingdom, around 1900 BC, until the end of the Ptolemaic Period nearly 2000 years later. They were placed in the tomb of the corpse to help them in the afterlife.

The term shabti applies to these figures prior to the Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt but after the end of the First Intermediate Period, and really only to figurines inscribed with Chapter Six of the Book of the Dead. Otherwise, they might better be defined by the generic term, funerary figurines.

The shabti counterparts after the 21st Dynasty were called Ushabti; (Shawabti were a distinct class of funerary figurines within the area of Thebes during the New Kingdom). Read more from wikipedia on Ushabti.


 

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