Hedvig Győry: Mélanges offerts a Edith Varga „Le lotus qui sort de terre” (Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts Supplément 1. Budapest, 2001)

LADISLAV BARES: Shabtis from the Late Period tombs at Abusir (Preliminary remarks)

Shahtis from the Late Period tombs at Abusir (Preliminary remarks) S

habtis certainly belong to the most typical and most widespread Egyptian objects of the Late Period date in the museums around the world.

1 I hope therefore that Dr. Edith Varga, herself deeply interested in the material culture of Late Period Egypt, will be pleased with the following remarks. In the 1980's, a large group of Late Period tombs has been located in the south-western portion of the Czech archaeological concession at Abusir. According to the preliminary survey, this group consists of five or six large shaft tombs and several dozens of smaller tombs.

2 Archaeological excavation started here in 1980. So far, only the tomb of the famous Udjahorresnet has been almost completely excavated between 1980 and 1993.

3 Since 1995, the work of the Czech archeological mission concentrates on the excavation and study of the tomb of Iufaa, where an intact burial chamber was discovered and opened in 1996.

4 Quite recently, one of the smaller tombs was also unearthed, that belonged to a certain Padihor.

5 In all the tombs mentioned above, finds of shabtis are attested. In the tomb of Udjahorresnet, only six such items came to light: two in the main shaft above the ceiling of the burial chamber and three more in the corridor connecting the eastern small shaft with the burial chamber.

6 Fragment of another shabti, found in the eastern wing of the peripheral shaft, is certainly intrusive judging from 1 Publications on shabtis are perhaps too numerous to be quoted here. An interesting overview of this category of objects is regularly published by J.-L. Chappaz in BSEG since the year \9&1 (BSEG 11 (1987), pp. 141-151; latest edition BSEG 23 (1999), pp. 101-121). 1 See L. Bares - M. Vemer, Archeological survey of Abusir, ZAS 119 (1992), pp. 122-123 with a map on p. 122. 3 L. Bares, The shaft tomb of Udjahorresnet at Abusir (Abusir, IV), Prague 1999. Because of the safety reasons, the bottom could not have been reached in the main shaft and in the peripheral shafts. A See the preliminary reports in GM 151 (1996), pp. 7-17 (L. Bares), GM 156 (1997), pp. 9-26 (L. Bares and K. Smoláriková) and ZÄS 127 (2000), pp. 5-14 (L. Bares and E. Strouhal). s The tomb, situated about 30 metres to the east of the enclosure wall of the main shaft of Iufaa's tomb and almost exactly in the axis of its eastern façade, was excavated in January 2001. 6 See Bares, op. cit (note 3), p. 67 and figs. 46-47 and 52-53.