Virtual Egyptian - Shawabti of King Psamtik I, Dyn. 26

Shawabti of King Psamtik I, Dyn. 26

Period:		Egypt, Late Period, Dynasty 26, Psammetichus I/Wahibre
Dating:		664 BC–610 BC
Origin:		Egypt, Lower Egypt, Sais
Material:		Faience (all types)
Physical:		18.6cm. (7.3 in.) - 217 g. (7.7 oz.)
Catalog:		FAI.LL.00877

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This burned faience shawabti was made for King Wah-ib-re Psamtik, first king of Dynasty 26. The hieroglyphs read: “Illuminate the Osiris Wah-ib-re Psamtik, true of voice.”

“Starting with Dynasty 26, shawabtis start smiling… They become uniformly mummyform without exception. Little green or blue faience statuettes inspired from the large statuary, they rest against a dorsal pillar, standing on a rectangular pedestal… for some kings, we encounter unfortunate homonimies… A first problem is met with Psamtik I The Great, resulting from his homonymy with the two other Psamtiks. Apries, fourth king of the Dynasty, having himself received the birth name Wahibre, some Egyptologists deduced that statuettes written to the name of Wahibre could have belonged to Psamtik I, and that Apries would not have left us any shawabti. It is true that the detailed comparative study of Saite royal shabtis meets with undeniable difficulties, particularly due to the small number of often fragmentary artifacts, and to their diversity” (Aubert 1974:208-211).

Funerary Statuettes
The anthropomorphic statuettes sometimes found in Egyptian tombs fulfilled a variety of roles. Some were carved to help the defunct attain eternal life by preserving the integrity of the four parts of a person. Some served as deputies of the defunct, to discharge unwelcome obligations of his afterlife. Some were made to provide the defunct with a staff to enhance his “after-lifestyle.” As often with the fluid nature of Egyptian thought, combinations and compromises between these seemingly irreconcilable aspirations often occurred.

Consequently, this thematic overview of 3000 years of funerary statuettes presents a somewhat artificial, anachronistic perspective which, although useful, imparts discontinuities to the narrative. Please bear with us.

Preserving Integrity
The goal of Egyptian funerary practices was to help the defunct reach the stage of Akh, that of the blessed dead that would continue to exist for all eternity in the other world. But any hope of attaining this eternal bliss was absolutely predicated upon preservation of the defunct’s physical body, name, Ba, and Ka.

Starting with the late predynastic, or at least the early dynastic, we find near the mummy wooden figures that we believe to represent the Ka of the defunct. The Ka was the “spark of life,” this tenuous but infinitely important difference between a corpse and a living person. Ka statuettes are anthropomorphic. They sometimes wear atop their heads the hieroglyphic sign for Ka—a pair of outstretched arms.

Tombs from Dynasty 4 high dignitaries sometimes contained “reserve heads.” These were clearly faithful portraits of the defunct, presumably intended to preserve his physical appearance for eternity.

Delegation of Labor
The Egyptian state apparatus relied on a sophisticated system of civil service draft that was demanded of all Egyptians. Every citizen had to work for the state for a few weeks a year (Kemp 2000:129). Egyptians naturally assumed that such a system had to exist in the kingdom of the dead.

During Dynasty 12 of the Middle Kingdom (circa 1800 BC), a new class of funerary statuettes appeared. Streamlined, almost minimalist, most often made of highly polished stone, a single statuette was placed in the tomb, representing the defunct, with his arms, his legs, his whole body shrouded in mummy trappings, up to his head. These would come to be known as shawabtis and ultimately become one of the most emblematic of Egyptian artifacts.

Shawabtis had a clear mission: to take over for the defunct whenever he was called to serve his tour of duty in the kingdom of the dead. Although these early shawabtis were most often uninscribed, some bore the name of the defunct, and a few—such as that of Renseneb (British Museum #49343)—were inscribed with chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead, which makes the role of shawabtis very explicit by spelling out their duty.

O Shawabti!
If the Osiris [name of defunct] is summoned
To do any work that has to be done in the other world
Or an obstacle/unpleasant task is imposed on him there
To cultivate the fields,
To irrigate the land
To move sand from East to West, and back
In the place of the man at his duty
Here I am, you shall say

These shawabtis of the Middle Kingdom and the beginning of the Second Intermediary Period were all made for high dignitaries. No royal shawabti from this time has ever been found. One could reasonably argue that kings did not need shawabtis, because they expected to be exempt from any labor conscription in the kingdom of the dead (and they certainly had no compelling need for a funerary statuette immortalizing their physical appearance, as it was already well documented in a variety of media).

By the middle of the Second Intermediary Period (c.1650 BC), shawabtis had fallen into disuse. They are virtually unknown during the Hyksos period (c. 1650-1550 BC)

Staff for the After Life
In all civilizations, men would rather envision a vibrant afterlife. For Egyptians, who were steeped in a culture that glorified continuity and stability in all things, this afterlife would much resemble their current existence. Rich Egyptians expected to continue enjoying their material comfort, supported by their retinue of servants. Funerary practices reinforced and perhaps were thought to make this vision possible.

During part of Predynastic Egypt, evidence suggests that the King (or reigning queen) ensured good service in the after life by the gruesome practice of having his servants and administrators buried with him-perhaps alive. This practice appears to have died with the reign of King Ra-Neb.

A thousand years later, at the end of the Old Kingdom, this concept was brought back in a much more civilized form. Tombs were furnished with highly detailed models of servants hard at work for their master. These models, sometimes marvelously full of life, contributed a great deal to our understanding of daily life in Egypt. Unfortunately for archeologists, this practice also fell into disuse by the end of the First Intermediate Period (circa 2000 BC).

Some four hundred years later, towards the end of the Second Intermediate Period, the shawabti statuettes started reappearing in tombs. Initially there were "stick shabtis"—crude items that bore little resemblance to Middle Kingdom shawabtis. As the New Kingdom unfolded, these were replaced by increasingly refined shawabtis. Although they were still shawabtis, as the ritual text from the Book of the Dead indicates, their relationship to the defunct had changed in subtle but profound ways. Their gender no longer necessarily matched the defunct. Starting with King Ahmose, they were also placed in royal tombs. More importantly, they were no longer unique. In fact, as time went on, they became more and more numerous. The tomb of Tutankhamun, for instance, held 413 shawabtis (Stewart 1995:19), and that of Seti I some 700 statuettes. To keep this veritable army of workers productive, a formal hierarchy was introduced amongst shawabtis, with the emergence of “overseers” or reisshawabtis during the Ramesside period. Usually provided in the ratio of one to ten, these overseer shawabtis are very distinctive, wielding a whip and donning a projecting pleated kilt. Eventually, the number of royal shawabtis settled around 401, one for every day of the year, plus 36 overseers. Clearly, the original significance of the shawabti as the "substitute of the defunct in his labor duty" had evolved. Could it be that these later shawabtis were really substitutes, not for the defunct, but instead for his retinue of servants, so that they would not be called away from their duty to their master. This would account for the need for shawabtis in a royal tomb, and tie into the ancient tradition of keeping one’s servants in the other world.

In a highly ritualized society, where constancy is highly valued and every change in hand placement or accessory in a religious representation can have profound meaning, the rapid stylistic evolution of shawabtis was an exceptional phenomenon. Interestingly, these changes often mirrored the vagrancies of Egyptian society and economy. In times of order and wealth, shawabtis were proud reflections of a refined society, while in times of political uncertainty and economic frailty, they displayed a lack of care betraying more immediate preoccupations.

In the sleek, sober Dynasty 12 statuettes, the hands were often completely shrouded under the mummy wrapping. By Dynasty 13, the hands more commonly emerged from the wrapping, crossed against the chest, and holding ritual objects such as the Ankh and an offering vase. When shawabtis returned during Dynasty 17 as stick shabtis, they looked like a grotesque Pez dispenser in a cocoon. But with Dynasty 18, they once again were elegant works of art. By the middle of Dynasty 18, we see both mummyform shawabtis portraying the subject after death, and shawabtis donning the sophisticated pleated robes of the living. This is also when most shawabtis started holding agricultural implements (generally hoes), and carrying bags (presumably holding seeds). Some were also burdened with water pots hanging from a yoke. Dynasty 19 brought very distinctive overseers shawabtis with their projecting pleated skirts, and the establishment of Egyptian faience as the material of choice for the manufacture of shawabtis. The Theban priesthood of the Third Intermediate Period contributed a style of faience shawabtis who despite their ungainly appearance, dazzle us with their spectacularly intense cobalt blue glaze. The Kushite kings of Dynasty 25 brought back the elegant simplicity of the Middle Kingdom shawabtis. Then, the Saites (Dynasty 26) abolished the distinction between overseer and common worker, and returned to a strict mummyform appearance, with a male subject wearing a pleated beard, holding a hoe in one hand and a pick in the other, and resting against with a back pillar. Shawabtis would change very little after that, but for their name which evolved into the variant Ushebti. "Although the production of royal shabtis ceased with Nectabo II, the last pharaoh of the Thirtieth Dynasty, the figurines continued to be made for commoners. The final demise of the type came at the end of the Ptolemaic period." (Stewart 1995:32)

Psamtik I
Psamtik I (664-610 BC) was born crown prince of a local potentate in an Egypt then ruled by the powerful Nubian/Egyptian king Taharqa. His life seemed preordained. But within a few years, the world he knew came tumbling down.

In 666, the Assyrians invaded Egypt and abducted the young Psamtik. After a period of indoctrination at the Assyrian capital Nineveh, Psamtik was returned to Egypt and installed by the Assyrians at the head of the little Kingdom of Athribis in the Delta. Soon after the Assyrian occupation army departed, the Nubians came back. But this time, many of the small kingdoms of the Delta opposed the Nubians. Leading them was Psamtik’s father, Nekau (I), king of Sais in the Delta. In the battle that ensued, Nekau was killed and the chiefs of the Delta surrendered to the Nubians. A few months later, the Assyrians returned and again chased the Nubians out of Egypt. They made Psamtik “King of Upper and Lower Egypt,” and left again. Of course, this was an empty title. Lower Egypt was divided in a multitude of chiefdoms, Middle and Upper Egypt were controlled by Thebes, and Psamtik was nothing more than a puppet of the Assyrians under further threat of invasion from the East or the South. What followed is nothing short of extraordinary.

Psamtik quickly consolidated his power base at home in Sais and Athribis. Soon, he gained the full support of Memphis, and developed strong alliances with Buto. By then, he controlled half of the Delta. Only the Libyan Ma chiefdoms kept refusing to acknowledge his suzerainty. Turning from diplomacy to economics, he devised an array of financial and tax incentives to promote foreign trade with the Greeks and the Phoenicians. His kingdom’s economic machine soon picked up considerable steam, and Psamtik could finally afford to build an effective military force. But, keenly aware that the traditional Egyptian military establishment was dominated by Egyptians of Libyan origin, who might have felt greater allegiance to his Ma opponents, Psamtik diluted their influence by hiring a considerable contingent of Carian and Ionian mercenaries. Impressed, the rest of the Delta soon joined his fold by the end of Year 4.

By Year 7, Prince Samtutefnakht of Herakleopolis brought him the allegiance of Middle Egypt, with full control of fluvial traffic and caravan links with Nubia, Libya and the Western Oases, providing further economic opportunities. A year later, Psamtik’s diplomacy accomplished the unimaginable: the Divine Adoratrice Shepenwepet II of Thebes adopted his daughter Nitiqret (Nitocris) as her successor, thereby handing him the rest of Egypt. Psamtik had finally grown into his title King of Upper and Lower Egypt.

After two more years of preparations (Year 11), Psamtik abrogated his ties to Assyria, and threw the last of the Assyrian garrisons out of his borders. The Assyrians, busy elsewhere, did not react. Psamtik had become the sole king of an independent, reunified Egypt. In ten short years, and practically without the use of his military, he lifted Egypt from what seemed the weakest point in its history, and ended four hundred years of division and instability. In ten short years, Psamtik saved Egypt. He would spend the rest of his life reinventing it.

Psamtik I ruled 54 years, exerting his influence on all aspects of Egyptian life. Sheltered by the political stability brought upon by his skilled diplomacy, and nourished by the foreign trade generated by his enlightened fiscal policies, Egypt enjoyed a spectacular economic expansion. Grimal (1994) notes that by the middle of the Dynasty, Egypt’s population would reach 7.5 million, “an enormous number compared with the rest of the Mediterranean region especially considering that Egypt’s population was not to exceed 8 million until the nineteenth century.” His progressive reshaping of Egyptian ideology--a feat which required uncanny diplomatic skill and leadership--provided his nation with a clear sense of national identity while diluting the theologic monopoly of the Theban priesthood. Where his predecessors used the patronage of one god (Amun) as the source of their legitimacy and as the focus point of Egyptian culture, inadvertently privileging that god’s hometown (Thebes), Psamtik exalted the essence of Egyptian religion without emphasizing any local god. Amun of Thebes, Neith of Sais, Ptah of Memphis, Osiris of Abydos... all gods and all cities participated in the glory of the Egyptian Pantheon. (Some argue that this religious exuberance would eventually yield excessive animal worshipping akin to totemism.)

Psamtik’s theological movement was accompanied by a renaissance of the arts, celebrating without sheepishly copying Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom sources. Unfortunately, the most spectacular buildings of his day did not survive as they were clustered in the Delta, where preservation conditions are poor.

Psamtik’s foreign policy was remarkably pragmatic. When hordes of Cimmerian barbarians invaded around 630 BC, he found it more expedient and less disruptive to buy them off rather than fight them. When in 616 BC, his old archenemy Assyria showed signs of weakness bordering on collapse, he came to its rescue fighting the Chaldeans deep inside Iran. Indeed, Psamtik was not afraid to project his military power. Shaw (2000) notes that “late in his reign, we encounter Egyptian forces operating in Asia even further afield than in the heady days of the 18th Dynasty rulers Thuthmosis I and III.”

Psamtik I died in 610 BC, leaving to his son Nekau (II) a prosperous, rejuvenated Kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Dynasty 26
Born in times of weakness, when Egypt was regularly invaded and generally controlled by the Assyrians, Dynasty 26 (‘the Saite Dynasty’) was installed at the head of the tiny kingdoms of Sais and Athribis in the Delta by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. This turned out to be a bad move for Assyria. Within 12 years, in an astonishing reversal of fortunes, the Saite king Psamtik would reunify Egypt under his crown and liberate his nation from Assyrian domination.

Weaving the clear threat of his military power with extremely agile diplomacy and carefully orchestrated ideology, Psamtek brought about the political reorganization that had eluded his predecessors for four hundred years. At last, Egypt was once again led by a centralized authority—an all powerful king, a guardian of order, a living god. It was a true rebirth for Egypt, with a once again thriving economy, a recovered sense of national identity, and a new-found opening to the outside world—most particularly to the Greek World. Under Psamtik’s agile leadership, Egypt was simultaneously moving forward and drawing strength from its glorious past—most particularly that of the Old and Middle Kingdoms. This was particularly manifest in the arts. Craftsmen of the Saite period aspired to equal, and hoped to surpass, their Middle Kingdom predecessors, while adhering closely to the classic canons of aesthetic tradition—a scenario that would play out again 2200 years later when artists of the Italian renaissance sought to rise to the standards set by their Ancient Greek predecessors. Managing their new prosperity with great skill, while keeping the Babylonians at bay, the Saites embarked on an ambitious program of building, restoring, and embellishing. Commerce flourished under dedicated military protection and ambitious public works projects, such as the digging of a canal from the Nile to the the Red Sea—2500 years before the Suez Canal.

Although brilliant by its achievements and the remarkable period of peace and stability it carved within the context of an increasingly turbulent Mediterranean world, the Saite Dynasty was somewhat short-lived (139 years). Its increasing reliance on foreign mercenaries caused tensions, and eventually infighting within the military establishment. Militarily weakened, Egypt became easy prey for the Persian juggernaut. In 525, Persia took over Egypt, putting a sudden end to the Saite period. Egypt would never again shine so brightly.

Bibliography (for this item)

Aubert, Jacques-F., and Liliane Aubert
1974 Statuettes égyptiennes: chaouabtis, ouchebtis. Librairie d’Amerique et d’ Orient, Paris, France. (208-211)

Bibliography (on Funerary Statuettes)

Aubert, Jacques-F., and Liliane Aubert
1974 Statuettes égyptiennes: chaouabtis, ouchebtis. Librairie d’Amerique et d’ Orient, Paris, France.

Stewart, Harry M.
1995 Egyptian Shabtis. Shire Publications, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom.

Bibliography (on Psamtik I)

Grimal, Nicolas
1994 A History of Ancient Egypt (Reprint of the 1994 edition, translated by Ian Shaw). Blackwell, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Mysliwiec, Karol
2000 The Twilight of Ancient Egypt, First Millenium B.C.E.. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.

Shaw, Ian
2000 The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Shawabti of King Psamtik I, Dyn. 26

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