Step 7 of 9

Ancient mass production

Related Images

  • Fig. 1 - Clay shabti mold used to produce shabtis in a fast way - Museo Egizio Turin [S 9529](https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/S_9529)
  • Fig. 2 - Limestone shabti mold with the front part of the figurine - British Museum [EA50667](https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA50667)
  • Fig. 3 - Limestone shabti mold with the backside of the figurine - British Museum [EA50667](https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA50667_1)

In the beginning the number of shabtis put into one tomb varied. Usually one or two figures can be found per person, in rare cases even up to five. However, over time the quantity of shabtis per burial increased. From the 18th dynasty onwards, it was usual to add 365 shabtis to each burial, leaving one to work per day. In the 19th dynasty more figures were added to the corpus, representing overseers – one in ten shabtis –, who made sure that the works were indeed carried out just as in real life. In some cases, one additional shabti would function as supervisor over both the overseer and the worker shabtis. Therefore, by the end of the New Kingdom more than 400 shabtis were usually part of a burial. T. Kohl, Diener für die Ewigkeit, 16–17. 26; H. D. Schneider, Shabtis, II, 241.

With regard to Amenkhau, more of his ushabtis are known to exist, and some have already been published. cf. Phoenix 9,2, 53; Schlögl, Totenfiguren Schweizer Privatsammlungen, 222. It is unknown how many ushabtis Amenkhau had in total, but he is estimated to have had between three and four hundred figurines.

It must have been quite the undertaking to produce this amount of shabtis. Shabtis made from clay, such as this terracotta ushabti, were either made by hand or in molds. From the overhanging parts at the back of this ushabti, we can see that this one was probably made in a mold. Details were then added by painting the objects with different colors. T. Kohl, Diener für die Ewigkeit, 28. This means that sometimes the figurines could be bought premade, with the name and title(s) of the deceased added afterwards. H. D. Schneider, Shabtis, II, 241. By creating the ushabtis in molds, the hundreds of figurines that were part of the burial assemblage could be made at a high pace. In the process of manufacturing the ushabtis of Amenkhau, not all excess material was removed on either side of the shabtis, showing how swiftly the manufacturers must have worked.

The molds in which ushabtis were produced could be made of clay and were half open, forming only the front of the ushabti (Fig. 1). Some were also made of limestone and were composed of a front and back side, forming the figurines on both sides at the same time (Fig. 2 & 3). We can determine which tactic was used in this case by turning the shabti around again.