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)
the remains of the inscription. 7 The shabtis of Udjahorresnet, made of light blue-green faience, are similar in shape: a rather crudely worked standing figure with a tripartite wig and Osirian beard (type 36 according to the classification by H.D. Schneider) 8 , with a hoe in each of the hands crossed over the breast and a bag over the left shoulder (type 26a) 9 . They are inscribed with two single columns of the text on the front and rear sides respectively: 1. Wsjr, wr sjnw, Wdî-hr-Rsnt, 2. ms n Jtm-jr-dj.s „Osiris, Chief Physician, Udjahorresnet, born of Atemirdis". Although the texts are identical, the distribution and shape of individual signs, crudely incised under the glaze, are different. Rather surprisingly, the shabtis of Udjahorresnet differ in length that fluctuates between 12.7 and 13.9 cms. The very limited number of shabtis found in the tomb of Udjahorresnet aroused the suspicion that his tomb has never been used for a burial. 10 The original place of Udjahorresnet's shabtis is unknown. In the intact burial chamber of Iufaa, 408 shabtis were found in two wooden boxes situated on the northern and southern sides of the outer sarcophagus respectively (203 in the north and 205 in the south)." The faience shabtis, glazed in light blue, are almost identical in their shape, representing an Osirian figure with a tripartite wig, plaited beard and hands crossed right over left (hoe in the right and pick in the left hand). 12 Without any exception, the shabtis are inscribed on the front side only. The text, incised under the glaze, runs as follows: hrp hwwt J(w)fC ), jr n c nht.s „Controller of the palaces, Iufaa, born of Ankhtes." In spite of the identical shape, the dimensions and details of individual shabtis differ rather considerably. The length fluctuates between 13.1 and 16 cm, the width between 3.5 and 4.5 cm. No relation exists between the minimal and maximal dimensions: the width of the pieces with the maximal length See Bares, op. cit (note 3), p. 69 and fig. 54. 1 I I.D. Schneider, Shabtis. An introduction to the history of ancient Egyptian funerary statuettes with a catalogue of the collection of shabtis in the National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden, vol. Ill, Leiden 1977, fig. 11. 9 Schneider, op. cit (note 8), vol. Ill, fig. 14. "' M. Vemer, La tombe d'Oudjahorresnet et le cimetière saïto-perse d'Abousir, BIEAO 89 (1989), pp. 289-290, repeated in a more elaborated form in M. Verner, Forgotten Pharaohs, Lost Pyramids - Abusir, Prague 1994, p. 167, and accepted, e.g., by G. Burkard, Medizin und Politik: Altägyptische Heilkunst am persischen Königshof, SAK 21 (1994), p. 45 and S. Bickel - P. Tallet, La nécropole saïto-perse d'Héliopolis, Étude préliminaire. BIFAO 97 (1997), p. 88, note 66. According to the present author, this fact can be easily explained as the result of tomb robbers' activities and is quite irrelevant to the question whether or not Udjahorresnet has been buried here, see L. Bares - M. Verner, op. cit. (note 2), pp. 114-115 and Bares, op. cit (note 3), pp. 79-81. " See L. Bares - K. Smoláriková, The Shaft tomb of Iufaa at Abusir. Preliminary Report for 1995/96, GM 156 (1997), p. 15. I! Wig 37, hands 5, implements 8 according to Schneider, op. cit (note 8), figs. 11-13.
