Ushebti; Egypt, Late Period, 664–323 B.C.

Ushebti; Egypt, Late Period, 664–323 B.C.
Faience.
Measurements: 5.5 cm tall.
Ushebti figurines are small statues that were placed in tombs as part of the deceased’s grave goods. The oldest surviving examples date from the Middle Kingdom, although references to them can already be found in texts from the late Old Kingdom. Over time, they always retained the same religious function, but while during the Middle Kingdom they were conceived as representations of their owner before Osiris in the tasks of tilling the land in the realm of the shadows—and thus replicas of the deceased—from the New Kingdom onward they came to be seen as the deceased’s servants or slaves, and were produced in large quantities.