Small treasure

We have seen that even though this object is small and not exactly one of a kind, there is a lot to learn from it.

This ushabti currently resides in the collection of the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO) in Leiden. The basis of this collection is formed by the artifacts originally acquired by professor of Assyriology in Leiden Franz de Liagre Böhl (1882-1976). Böhl’s collection is best known for its thousands of clay tablets, but less well known is that it also contains some ancient Egyptian artifacts.

According to documents from the NINO archive, this ushabti was most probably acquired by prof. Böhl on the 4th of January 1930, in Luxor, where he bought several Egyptian artifacts from a trader called Mohareb Todrous. Böhl purchased three of Amenkhau’s ushabtis there.

Besides ushabtis of Amenkhau, Böhl’s collection contains several other shabtis, all bought on trips to Egypt, which he sometimes led as a tour guide. In the end, though, Böhl seems to have clearly favored Mesopotamian antiquities over Egyptian ones. When he got the chance, he traded off one of his shabtis for a clay tablet.Holwerda, E., The Egyptian objects in the collection Böhl at the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (MA thesis; Leiden, 2010).