I chose my object from Manchester Art Gallery in the Craft & Design Gallery. They had three examples of Egyptian Shabtis, I have seen these before and liked the idea of finding out more about them. However, as Manchester Art Gallery only had a few examples, I went, instead, to Bolton Museum where they have around 15 on display.
Shabtis are small mummy shaped figures placed in Egyptian tombs over a period of about 2000 years. Shabti means ‘answerer’. There is a quote in Bolton Museum from the ‘Book of the Dead’ that says “O Shabti, allotted to me, if I be summoned or if I be detailed to do any work which has to be done in the realm of the dead…”Here am I,” you shall say.” People believed they would be called to work in the afterlife and so Shabtis were commonly inscribed with this quote and their owners name so that when their owners name was called, the Shabti would answer in their place. Over time, the number of Shabtis in a tomb increased to around 360-400, one for each day of the year with 36 Overseers for 10 workers.
Taken in Bolton Museum April 2013
A typical Shabti would have been made from Faience (Although many other materials were used) because of its blue green colour. Blue and green were very important colours because they represented the heavens, rebirth, resurrection, death etc. They would have been made in a mould in one of many workshops attached to temples. You can see the difference between overseers and normal workers by what they carry. Any kind of basket or farming tool would indicate worker and overseers would carry whips.
During my research I found a ceramic artist, Geraldine Grubb, who had recreated her own version of Shabtis. The Piece is called Crow Shabti. I love how simple the crows are, no glaze, carved or painted detail and the bottle shape is only recognisable as a crow by the protruding beak. You can tell they were modestly made because each shape is plain and slightly different from the others. My favourite part of this piece has to be how they are displayed in their very own Shabti box.
Although in our modern day society the use of little stone dolls to do our work when we’re dead might seem ridiculous but the sentiment might not be as old fashioned as you’d think. The tradition of offering to people in the afterlife is still practiced today in some cultures. The most similar to the Egyptians would be paper burning in China. They believe that by burning paper objects or money it will be transported to loved ones in the afterlife. In the documentary ‘Made in China’(2012) Gok Wan experiences this ritual for the first time. He finds all kinds of paper offerings such asclothes, Air conditioners and iPads but what I found most interesting was his reaction. He describes the process as ‘Making offerings for relatives I knew rather than nameless ancestors feels different in a way that’s difficult to describe…suddenly it doesn’t feel quite as alien as it probably should’. Even someone as current as him can see the relevance such traditions have.
The reason I chose the Shabtis instead of a more modern piece is because of their history and that they can link in with so many other subjects, death rituals, dolls, ceramics etc. Most of all I found them inspirational and intend trying to make my own versions of Shabtis using the traditional materials glass, clay and wax but also experimenting with modern materials such as plastics and modern technology like 3D printers and CNC routers. They are so simple yet have the potential for so much variation and reinterpretation. The Shabtis also remind me of ‘Trophy’ (2006) by Clare Twomey because of the repetition of so many similar objects and I would like to explore shabtis in a similar way.
Laura Simone Scott 