Djehutyhotep’s shabti-box is a plastered and painted wooden box, 31.5 cm tall and 16 × 14.2 cm in plan.15 It rests on a protruding base and culminates in two lateral jambs, between which a vaulted lid is set. On the front of the box and on the corresponding side of the lid are two button-shaped knobs. They were used to fasten the lid by means of a now lost string. The box resembles a Predynastic pr-nw chapel in shape. Its surface is entirely covered by a thin plaster layer – relatively well preserved with some losses here and there – on which brightly colored funerary scenes are painted.

Shabti-box of Djehutyhotep, 3D model

By Vlad for Micropasts and Museo Egizio

The front side (Fig. 4) is almost entirely occupied by the representation of a masculine figure, facing rightwards, sitting on a chair with a high backrest and lion-paw feet. He is wearing sandals, a white pleated robe knotted at the belly with very wide sleeves, a wesekh collar, some green bracelets and a “double wig”. The figure wears a goatee and drinks from a cup held in the right hand. The left hand is raised in a gesture of devotion. The cup is filled by a stream of water coming from a hes vase, held by a female figure whose body rises from the branches of a tree in front of the male figure. A second stream of water, coming from the same hes vase, fills a second cup placed under the chair. From this cup a human-headed bird drinks. The scene represents the dead person and his ba drinking the purifying water poured by the sycamore tree goddess (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4

Shabti-box of Djehutyhotep (Turin Cat. 2443), front. H. 31.5 cm. Photo by Nicola Dell’Aquila/Museo Egizio.

On the right side (Fig. 5), the owner of the box is represented as a mummy on a pedestal, facing left towards an offering table beyond which is a bouquet. He is wrapped in white bandages and wears a wesekh collar. He wears a goatee and a “double wig” surrounded by a yellow band. An ointment cone rests on the wig.

Fig. 5

Shabti-box of Djehutyhotep, right side. Photo by Nicola Dell’Aquila/Museo Egizio.

The back is less well preserved, but the decoration is still clearly visible. The scene is dominated by the standing figure of the owner, dressed as he would have been when alive: elegant sandals on his feet, an elaborate garment with wide sleeves, gathered at the waist, and a double wig. He wears a wesekh collar and bracelets, and holds flabellum in his left hand. A second male figure is aspersing him with purifying water issuing from a hes vase. This figure has a shaved head and wears a short white pleated robe and a leopard skin on the shoulders, the typical attire of the sem priest. Even though no caption specifies the identity of this second individual, it might be one of the sons of Djehutyhotep, since this kind of scene typically depicts the worship of dead ancestors (Fig. 6).Fig. 6

Shabti-box of Djehutyhotep, back. Photo by Nicola Dell’Aquila/Museo Egizio.

The left side shows a scene divided in two by a central column of hieroglyphs, featuring two mummiform figures, facing one another. They wear a large wesekh collar, a tripartite wig and a false beard with well-visible black lines connecting it to the ears. In front of each figure is a bouquet extending from the feet to the knees. Hieroglyphic captions at the top of the scene identify the figures as Amset and Hapi, respectively on the right and left (Fig. 7).

The four scenes are clearly inspired by wall paintings in Theban tombs of the New Kingdom.16 The scenes are graced by polychrome borders with geometrical and floral motifs; the one below reproduces a stylized false-door motif, the one above a row of blue lotus petals.5

Fig. 7

Shabti-box of Djehutyhotep, left side. Photo by Nicola Dell’Aquila/Museo Egizio.

The walls of shabti-box Cat. 2443 are inscribed with columns and rows of very well-preserved hieroglyphs,17 written confidently and steadily in black ink. When the text is not limited to a mere caption, but also mentions names and titles of the figures represented in the scenes, it eulogizes the dead or evokes some typical funerary rituals of the Theban area.

Front:

Left side:

Back:

Right side:

Lid:

Among these many inscriptions the most interesting is the one on the right side. It refers to the god Sokar, to the ritual use of onion and to the journey of the dead to Abydos. These three elements are related to a funerary rite attested during the New Kingdom. The rite was carried out in the night between the 25th and the 26th of Khoiak, on the west bank at Thebes. It was related to the nTrjt23 festival, more specifically to the invigoration of the mummy of the god Sokar-Osiris and to the procession on board a boat to the Temples of Millions of Years and to the necropolis.24 During that night, privately, the ka-priests and/or the kinsmen of the Theban dead carried out rites of libation or purification in the chapels of the tombs. They wore necklaces made of braided onions and offered them to Sokar and to the dead.25 The previous two nights of the 23rd and 24th of Khoiak were devoted to the embalming of the statue of Sokar-Osiris, the rite of the opening of the mouth, and the protection of the mummy, which, being one with Osiris, sailed on the nSmt-boat to Abydos, where the deceased became mAa-xrw.26

Onion was much used in Egypt, where it was grown since ancient times. It is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, where it is designated by the word HDw.27 It was used in various contexts, for example in medicine-magic,28 especially against the bites of snakes and scorpions.29 Its antiseptic properties were much appreciated. During the process of mummification, it was placed on the chest and the upper belly, and in the facial cavities (mouth and eyes).30

The morphological features of the shabti-box of Djehutyhotep place it among the shabti-boxes of Type Marini I (Aston Type II), dated to between the middle and the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty.31 Nevertheless, the scenes decorating it – representing the dead6 man in the presence of his ancestors, the sycamore tree goddess and his ba – and the elaborate borders with lotus flower petals and the false-door motif are closer in style and subject matter to the boxes of the “Marini IIb and IIIa” types (Aston Type II and IV, respectively), featuring double and triple pr-nw chapels and dated between the mid-Nineteenth and the Twentieth Dynasties.32 Even though the morphology of shabti-boxes is typically crucial in determining their typology and dating, in this case it has less diagnostic value. Indeed, reuse of canonical artistic forms from the Eighteenth Dynasty is commonly attested during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties.33 The choice of specific subjects such as the sycamore tree goddess and the ba, on the contrary, constitutes a more certain terminus post quem: the two subjects are, indeed, widely attested in the wall paintings of Theban tombs and on shabti-boxes. The representation of the sycamore tree goddess is clearly inspired by Chapter 59 of the Book of the Dead; although the scene is attested on the walls of some tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty,34 it becomes popular only in the Ramesside age,35 when it also enters the iconography of shabti-boxes.36 The representation of the ba is also first attested on the walls of Theban tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty , but is more widespread in the Ramesside age.37 In particular, the theme of the ba drinking the water poured by the sycamore tree goddess is seen only from the Nineteenth Dynasty onward, both in wall paintings38 and on coffers.39 Moreover, another element suggesting a date no earlier than the Nineteenth Dynasty for the box is the two polychrome strips, with false-door motifs below and lotus-flower petals above. This feature can be seen on several double pr-nw chapel-shaped shabti-boxes, possibly dating to the Nineteenth40 and Twentieth Dynasties.41

Djehutyhotep, the owner of shabti-box Turin Cat.7 2443, bears the titles of jmy-r pr (steward) and sSm(w)-Hb n Jmn-Ra (leader of the feast of Amun-Re). Both the name and the titles suggest that he is the same Djehutyhotep who owned a shabti in the Civico Museo di Storia e Arte in Trieste (Inv. no. 5390, Fig. 8),42 inscribed with the following titles:

sS nswt = royal scribe;

Fig. 8

Shabti of Djehutyhotep II (Trieste 5390). H. 28,5 cm. Photo by Enrico Halupca/Civico Museo di Storia e Arte in Trieste.

Claudia Dolzani dates this statuette to the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty on stylistic and typological grounds.43 Franco Crevatin reminds us that Wolfgang Helck – in Zur Verwaltung des Mittleren und Neuen Reichs –, also attributes the blade of a bronze knife (Fig. 9) kept in the Metropolitan Museum of New York (n. inv. 48.105.3) and the head of a granite statue (Fig. 10) in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Copenhagen ÆIN 1019) to the owner of shabti Trieste 5390.44 Both the knife and the head are attributable to a famous Djehutyhotep45 who lived during the reign of Hatshepsut.

Fig. 9

Knife of Djehutyhotep I (The Met 48.105.3). L. 14 cm.

The bronze blade was found by the archeological mission of the Metropolitan Museum near the funerary temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari.46 Close to the junction between the blade and the now lost handle – probably originally of wood – is the inscription: jmy-r pr n nTr-nfr 9Hwty-Htp = steward of the good god, Djehutyhotep. Hayes attributes it to the same Djehutyhotep as the owner of the Copenhagen statue.47

Fig. 10

Head of a statue of Djehutyhotep (Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, ÆIN. 1019). H. 25 cm. Photo by Ole Haupt.

The head of the granite statue belongs to a type with a back-pillar, smooth wig, and short beard. It has pierced earlobes and shaded eyebrows48 and it bears the titles jmy-r pr sSmw Hb n Imn 9Hwty-htp (chief steward, leader of the feast of the god Amun, Djehutyhotep). Otto Koefoed-Petersen dated it between the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties.49 Furthermore, pierced earlobes appear on depictions of men in the last decade of the reign of Amenhotep III and then became very popular during the Amarna period and later.50 Shaded eyebrows also became common towards the end of the reign of Horemheb.51 Finally, the mouth is of a shape found on statues of the Ramesside period. All these data thus do not support Helck’s attribution, but rather point to a date between the end of the Eighteenth and the early Nineteenth Dynasty.

Moreover, the British Museum has a small vaulted wooden lid with a semicircular section, a more or less square base, a knob on the front lunette and a column of hieroglyphs on the top (Fig. 11) reading sS nswt jmy-r pr wr m njw.t-rs.t sSm(w)-Hb n Jmn-Ra 9Hwty-htp (royal scribe, chief steward of the Southern City [=Thebes], leader of the feast of Amun-Re, Djehutyhotep [BM EA 30801]).52 The shape, the dimensions8 (9.3 × 8.6 cm) and the knob on the lunette suggest that it is a lid for a single pr-nw chapel-shaped shabti-box, datable to the Eighteenth Dynasty.53 The closest parallel is indeed the lid of a shabti-box of an Amenemhat (New York, Brooklyn Museum 50130a-b) dated to the reign of Thutmosis IV.54

Fig. 11

Shabti-box lid of Djehutyhotep (BM EA 30801). H. 3.56 cm, l. 9.03 cm, w. 8.06 cm. Photo by Paolo Marini.

The homonymy and the sameness of the title on all the above objects suggest that they might all belong to the same owner. However, their stylistic dating does not support this hypothesis. Indeed, knife blade New York 48.105.3 and shabti-box lid London BM EA 30801, as we have seen, date from the Eighteenth Dynasty. Statue head Copenhagen ÆIN 1019, instead, can be dated between the end of the Eighteenth and the early Nineteenth Dynasty, and shabti-box Turin Cat. 2443 cannot be earlier than the Nineteenth Dynasty. A later date can also be suggested for shabti Trieste 5390, which shows elements such as the painted layered wig and other stylistic details that are typical of the Ramesside age.

In the light of the above, then, the objects must in fact belong to at least two homonymous individuals: one who lived in the age of Hatshepsut (Djehutyhotep I) and another who lived in the late Eighteenth to early Nineteenth Dynasty (Djehutyhotep II). Further support for this hypothesis can be found in a stylistic comparison between three of the five objects, namely, shabti-box lid London BM EA 30801, shabti-box Turin Cat. 2443 (Fig. 12) and shabti Trieste 5390. Three objects from the same funerary assemblage should surely resemble one another. Instead, the lid in the British Museum piece is very different in style from the shabti-box in Turin and the shabti in Trieste, most notably because it is unpainted, whereas both of the latter objects carry a fine pictorial decoration.

Fig. 12

Shabti-box lid of Djehutyhotep (Turin Cat. 2443). H. 4 cm, l. 9 cm, w. 8.4 cm. Photo by Nicola Dell’Aquila/Museo Egizio.

Shabti-box Turin Cat. 2443, as the decoration suggests, was thus probably made during the reign of Ramesses II for an eminent official who lived and was buried in the Theban area. The object is a very interesting and rare example of its kind: it has the usual decoration of shabti-boxes of Type Marini IIIa (Aston Type IV) but the morphology of shabti-boxes of Type Marini I (Aston Type II). Indeed, it does not seem to fit into any existing typological slot.9

Table 1

Complete list of the shabti-containers of the Museo Egizio of Turin

AEO = Gardiner, A., Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, Oxford 1947.

Aston, D.A., “The Shabti-Box: A Typological Study”, in: OMRO 74 (1994), pp. 21–54.

Borla, M., La scuola nell’antico Egitto, Torino 1997.

Connor, S., Le statue del Museo Egizio, Modena 2016.

Cooney, J.D., “Equipment for Eternity”, BrookMusB 12/2 (1951), pp. 1–12.

Cooney, J.D., “Some Late Egyptian Antiquities, I: A Shawabti Box”, BCMA 62 (1975), pp. 229–39.

Crevatin, F. and M. Vidulli Torlo, (eds.), La collezione egizia del Civico museo di storia ed arte di Trieste, Trieste 2013.

Desplancques, S., L'institution du Trésor en Egypte des origines à la fin du Moyen Empire, Paris 2006.

Documenti inediti per servire alla storia dei musei d'Italia, III, Firenze – Roma 1880.

Dolzani, C., Statuina egiziana wšbti del Civico Museo di Storia ed Arte di Trieste, Trieste 1961.

Donadoni Roveri, A.M., “La Valle delle Regine”, in: A.M. Donadoni Roveri (ed.), Civiltà degli Egizi: le credenze religiose, Milano 1988, pp. 146–61.

Donatelli, L., “Piccoli oggetti di corredo funerario nelle varie epoche”, in: A.M. Donadoni Roveri, (ed.), Civiltà degli Egizi: le credenze religiose, Milano 1988, pp. 198–211.

Fabretti, A., F. Rossi and R.V. Lanzone, Regio Museo di Torino: Antichità Egizie, I (Catalogo generale dei musei di antichità e degli oggetti d’arte raccolti nelle gallerie e biblioteche del regno, 1. Piemonte), Torino 1882.

Goyon, J.-Cl., “La fête de Sokaris à Edfou à la lumière d’un texte liturgique remontant au Nouvel Empire”, BIFAO 78 (1978), pp. 415–38.

Graindorge, C., “Les oignons de Sokar”, RdÉ 43 (1992), pp. 87–105.

Graindorge, C., “L’oignon, la magie et les dieux”, in: S. Aufrère, (ed.), Encyclopédie religieuse de l’Univers végétal: croyances phytoreligieuses de l’Égypte ancienne, I (Orientalia Monspeliensia 11), Montpellier 1999, pp. 317–33.

Guidotti, M.C., “Il corredo funerario”, in: F. Tiradritti, (ed.), Il Cammino di Harwa. L’uomo di fronte al mistero: l’Egitto, Milano 1999, pp. 106–119.

Habachi, H., “Amenwahsu Attached to the Cult of Anubis, Lord of the Dawning Land”, MDAIK 14 (1956), pp. 52–62.

Habachi, L., “Nia, the Wab Priest and Doorkeeper of Amun-of-the-Hearing-Ear”, BIFAO 71 (1972), pp. 67–85.

Habachi, L., Tavole d’offerta, are e bacili da libagione, n. 22001–22067 (Catalogo del Museo Egizio di Torino, 2), Torino 1977.

Hayes, W.C., “Recent Additions to the Egyptian collection”, MMAB 7(1948–1949), 4, pp. 60–63.

Hayes, W.C. The Scepter of Egypt: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, II, The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675–1080 B.C.), New York 1959.

Helck, W., Zur Verwaltung des Mittleren und Neuen Reichs, Leiden 1958.

Humbert, J.-M., “La Description de l’Égypte, une source nouvelle pour l’égyptomanie”, in L’Égypte, une description: exposition du 2 avril au 31 août 1998 Musée Fesch Ajaccio, Ajaccio 1998.

Kees, H., “Kulttopographische und mythologische Beiträge”, ZÄS 71 (1935), pp. 107–12.

Koefoed-Petersen, O., Ny-Carlsberg Glyptotek: Catalogue des statues et statuettes égyptiennes, Copenhagen 1950.

LGG = Leitz, C., Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen, I–VII (OLA 110–116), Leuven 2002.

Lucas A. and J.R. Harris, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, Oxford 1962.

Manniche, L., The Tombs of the Nobles at Luxor, Cairo 1987.

Manniche, L., Lost Tombs: A Study of Certain Eighteenth Dynasty Monuments in the Theban Necropolis, London – New York 1988.

Manniche, L., Lost Ramessid and Post-Ramessid Private Tombs in the Theban Necropolis, Copenhagen 2011.

Marini, P., “I contenitori di ushabti nei musei italiani”, EVO 35 (2012), pp. 83–124.

Marini, P., “I contenitori di ushabti: funzioni e concezioni” (PhD Thesis, University of Pisa), Pisa 2016.

Marini, P., “The Shabti-Boxes and Their Representation in Wall Paintings in Tombs at Deir el-Medina”, in: A. Dorn and S. Polis (eds.), Outside of the Box: Selected Papers from the Conference “Deir el-Medina and the Theban Necropolis in Contact”, Liège, 27–29 October 2014 (AegLeod 11), Liège (forthcoming).

Maspero, G., “Rapport sur une mission en Italie”, RT IV (1882), pp. 103–30.

Mekhitarian A., Egyptian Painting, Geneva 1978.

Moiso, B., La storia del Museo Egizio, Modena 2016.

Orcurti, P.C., Catalogo illustrato dei Monumenti Egizi del R. Museo di Torino compilato dal professore Pier Camillo Orcurti, Torino 1855.

PM I.1 = Porter, B. and R.L.B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Relief and Paintings. I. The Theban Necropolis. Part 1: Private Tombs, Oxford 1994.

Posener-Kriéger, P., Les archives du temple funéraire de Néferirkarê-Kakaï (Les papyrus d'Abousir), Le Caire 1976.

Roccati, A., Itinerari dei Musei e Gallerie e Monumenti d’Italia, VII, Il Museo Egizio di Torino, Roma 1941.

Roccati, A., “Testi religiosi e funerari del secondo millennio a.C.”, in: A.M. Donadoni Roveri, Civiltà degli Egizi: le credenze religiose, Milano 1988, pp. 128–45.

Roccati, A., “La riscoperta continua dell’Egitto: preistoria delle collezioni torinesi”, in: C. Morigi Govi, S. Curto, and S. Pernigotti (eds.), L’Egitto fuori dell’Egitto: dalla riscoperta all’Egittologia, Bologna 1991, pp. 357–66.

Roehrig, C.H., R. Dreyfus and C.A. Keller (eds.), Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh, New Haven 2005.

Seipel, W., Ägypten: Götter, Gräber und die Kunst. 4000 Jahre Jenseitsglaube, Linz 1989.

Trapani, M., “Imitation et interprétation dans l’art égyptien: le cas de quelques fragments de peintures murales de Deir el-Médineh”, in: P. Collombert, D. Lefèvre, S. Polis and J. Winand, (eds.), Aere perennius. Mélanges égyptologiques en l’honneur de Pascal Vernus (OLA 242), Leuven – Paris – Bristol, CT 2016, pp. 81–124.

Urk. IV = Helck, W., Urkunden der 18. Dynastie. Biographische Inschriften von Zeitgenossen Thutmosis’ III. und Amenophis’ II., IV, Berlin 1956.

Wb = Erman, A. and H. Grapow, Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache im Auftrage der Deutschen Akademien, I–VII, Leipzig – Berlin 1926‒1963.