Shabtis of the XXIst Dynasty in the Collection of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan

Abstract

This article is a publication of shabtis of the 21 st Dynasty (c. 1070–950 B.C.) kept at the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan (NMRT). These objects found in the Bab el-Gasus Cache were received by the Kazan Museum in 1895 after the items of the so-called “Russian lot” had been distributed. Based on the analysis of recently published archival documents, museum documentation and previous publications of the Egyptian collection in Kazan (the description by B.A. Turaev and the catalogue by O.D. Berlev and S.I. Hodjash), the author identified shabtis from the “Russian lot” and in some cases, established their possible correspondence to the owners of the burial sets from the Bab el-Gasus tomb. In previous publications of the Egyptian part of the Kazan collection, descriptions of these items were not as detailed as needed for comprehensive research. All shabtis of the 21 st Dynasty were divided into three categories according to their provenance: ones undoubtedly coming from the Bab el-Gasus Cache; ones originating from the Theban necropolis; ones with their exact provenance not clarified. As a result it was possible to identify 8 out of 9 shabtis coming from Bab el-Gasus. The article contains updated information about each of the shabtis of the 21 st Dynasty , reproduction and translation of hieroglyphic inscriptions, and photographs of each piece. The main achievement of the present study is verification of the information about the NMRT collection’s shabtis, which is necessary for further research both of the history of objects from the “Russian lot” and background of other 21 st Dynasty shabtis kept in various Russian museums.