object

Ushabti

Objects · Rituals · Traditions

A funerary servant-figure of Egyptian burial, meant to answer for the dead. Not a scarab, not a golem, and not every later tomb-doll.

Also known as shabti · shawabti

Egyptian religion

  • Ushabti appears in Egyptian religion.

    Faulkner’s Book of the Dead includes the shabti spell that sends the figure to work for the dead. A named funerary servant-figure of that corpus, not scarab and not a canopic jar.

    from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

    appears in · sourced · documented

  • Ushabti is sacred to Osiris.

    The Book of the Dead sends the ushabti to answer for the dead in the fields of Osiris. A named funerary servant of that god’s estate, not the heart-scarab, and not a generic tomb-doll.

    from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

    sacred to · sourced · documented

sources

  • Book of the Dead · Raymond O. Faulkner (translation)

    Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.