This very finely detailed ushabti—a figurine left in the tomb to perform labor for the deceased—of a man named Psamtek is in the usual form of a mummiform figure with tripartite wig and a plaited, curved false beard. His almond-shaped eyes have long cosmetic lines below curved brows. His nose has a narrow bridge, the nostrils are flared, and the recesses within them are evident. Psamtek’s small ears are detailed with the helix and the opening of the auditory canal. His mouth has a wide upper lip and a narrower but much fuller lower lip. The pronounced edges of his mouth give Psamtek a pursed expression. The tresses on the back of his head are shown as tall, inverted “U”s. His hands emerge from the shroud, his right hand holding an agricultural pick and his left grasping a hoe and the rope for a seed basket. The basket itself is shown as a square on the back of his left shoulder. Nine horizontal lines of hieroglyphic text from the Book of the Dead Spell 6, calling upon the ushabti to labor for the deceased in the afterlife, wrap around the figure from both sides of the uninscribed back pillar. Psamtek’s name and that of his mother, Sebarekhyt, appear at the end of the first line and the beginning of the second (the text reads from right to left). The ushabti stands on a plinth that imitates the style of contemporary coffins. The brilliant blue color of the faience alludes to sunlight, and hence to the rebirth of the deceased.^[1]1

The crisp appearance of this ushabti is due to the compact grain of its faience that was able to reproduce the fine details in the mold. Minor variations between figurines that seem to have been made from the same mold are due either to the mold being worn or dirty or, more so, to details that were added with a tool between the molding and firing processes.^[2]2

Additional Views of Cat. 41

Psamtek was a fairly common personal name in the Late Period, for it honored kings of that name. Nonroyal Psamteks can be differentiated from their royal namesakes by the addition of the name(s) of their parent(s) after their own name, as on this example. Psamtek was well-placed in the administration, holding the priestly titles God’s Father and Inspector of Sem Priests and the administrative title Administrator of the Western Mountain (the necropolis), which indicate that he was probably an official in charge of the prestigious Memphite necropolis.^[3] His tomb was discovered illicitly and its contents widely dispersed. Psamtek’s coffin has been in Grenoble since 1830, his canopic equipment is in the Musée du Louvre and the Vatican Museum, and other ushabtis from his tomb are in collections throughout the world.^[4] Although the exact location of the tomb is unknown, it is thought to be at Saqqara (the necropolis for Memphis) near the Pyramid of Unis, where a number of Dynasty 26 shaft tombs are located.^[5]3

For more on shabtis and ushabtis, see About Shabtis and Ushabtis.4

Provenance

Mrs. Nathaniel B. Potter; given to Theodore W. and Frances S. Robinson, Chicago, by 1940 [correspondence in curatorial file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1942.5

Publication History

Florence Dunn Friedman, ed., Gifts of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Faience, with the assistance of Georgina Borromeo, exh. cat. (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1998), 155 (ill.), 241, cat. 152.6

Roberta Casagrande-Kim, ed., When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, with contributions by Mary C. Greuel et al., exh. cat. (New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, 2014), 21, fig. 1-4; 102, no. 114.
7