LARGE WOOD USHABTI OF MENKEPER

LARGE WOOD USHABTI OF MENKEPER

Mummiform, wearing tripartite wig, hands crossed over chest, six vertical columns of carved hieroglyphs: ‘…To be recited by Menkheper; he says: O, these shawabties, if one counts, if one reckons, if one calls in the realm of the dead, to do all the works which are wont to be done there, to cultivate the fields, to irrigate the riparian lands, to transport sand by boat from the west to the east – now indeed obstacles are implanted for you there – as a man at his duties when you are counted upon at any time to serve there: “Here I am”, you shall say…’

Ex priv. coll. Walter and Mary-Louise Daniels, San Francisco, acq. c.1973
H. 26,5 cm. Damage to face and left upperpart of body

New Kingdom, 18th Dyn, reign of Tutmosis III, 1479 – 1425 BC or shortly after.