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)

(about 15.8 to 16 cm) varies between 3.9 and 4.5 cm; the length of the pieces with the maximal width (4.5 cm) fluctuates between 14.8 and 15.8 cm. It is clear, therefore, that several moulds must have been used in their production. According to the shape of the signs, at least three individual writings can be distinguished. Not surprisingly, the numbers are not equal. By far the largest group counts about 205 pieces, the second largest about 123 pieces. Both groups were distributed among the northern and southern side of the burial chamber almost equally. Among the remaining pieces, that show a rather considerable variety of forms, a group of 15 pieces is very clear with most signs so ugly that the literacy of the scribe must be disputed. In this case, most items (12 out of 15) were found in the northern group of shabtis. Similar fluctuation can be seen in the shape of the bags behind the left shoulder. According to the classification suggested by H.D. Schneider,

13 type 26a is by far the most numerous (248 items, distributed almost equally between the north - 133 pieces and south - 115 pieces), followed by types 27 (100 items altogether, 55 in north and 45 in south) and 25 (26 items altogether, 7 in north and 19 in south). In 15 cases, the bag is depicted as a row of vertically oriented zig-zag lines. 14 The remaining items are either not clear or too individually shaped. No special relation seems to have existed between varying shapes of bags, forms of inscriptions, and other details on shabtis of Iufaa. Another large set of shabtis came to light in sloping corridor that starts as an open trench going along the eastern façade of the mudbrick structure enclosing the main shaft of Iufaa'

s tomb. Near to the south-eastern corner of this enclosure, the corridor turns to west-south-west and continues as a subterranean passage dug directly in the tail. At its western end, at a depth of about 10 metres, two burials were found in wooden coffins. 15 The westernmost of them, thus evidently older, was put in a rather well preserved double coffin. According to the texts on the lid, the coffin belonged to a certain Jm3h-hr-(t)-Rsnt, born to a lady ç

nht.s. 16 The other coffin, almost completely destroyed by humidity, contained " Schneider, op. cit (note 8), vol. Ill, fig. 14. " Such a shape is not listed among the types suggested by H.D. Schneider. 15 A preliminary report about the work done in the tomb of Iufaa and around it during the archaeological season of 2000/2001 is currently being prepared by L. Bares, K. Smoláriková and E. Strouhal and should appear in one of the forthcoming numbers of the ZÀS. 16 Because of the mother's name, the lady seems to be a sister of Iufaa to whom the main burial chamber in this complex belonged. This assumption is corroborated by the results of the preliminary anthropological examination (a personal communication by Prof. E. Strouhal).