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Lot Essay
The nine bands of hieroglyphs around the body read: "Instructions of the Osiris, the Chief Workman of the Crew, Qaha, justified. He says: O ye (lit. these) Shawabty, if the Osiris, the Chief Workman of the Crew Qaha is counted, if the Osiris, the Chief Workman of the Crew Qaha, justified is reckoned, in any work which is done in the Necropolis – indeed, an obstacle has been implanted...to cultivate the fields and to irrigate the banks, to convey sand of the East to the West...”
Inscribed for the Chief Workman of the Crew, Qaha, this wooden funerary figure likely derives from his tomb at Deir el-Medina, the settlement of artisans devoted to the construction, decoration and outfitting of the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Qaha’s pyramidal tomb (TT 360; see B. Bruyère, Rapport sur les fouilles de Deir el Médineh: 1930, pp. 72-115) is adjacent to the better-known tomb of the Chief Workman Inherkhau, and both tombs are richly decorated with painted funerary scenes on mud plaster. Four other examples of wooden shabtis of Qaha are in the Walters Art Museum and an example in the Louvre was recently featured in an exhaustive exhibition of the finds from the workmen’s community (see pp. 293-294 in G. Andreu Les artistes de Pharaon: Deir el-Médineh et la Vallée des Rois). Qaha was active during the reign of Ramesses II and was most likely responsible for directing work on that king’s tomb.
Inscribed for the Chief Workman of the Crew, Qaha, this wooden funerary figure likely derives from his tomb at Deir el-Medina, the settlement of artisans devoted to the construction, decoration and outfitting of the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Qaha’s pyramidal tomb (TT 360; see B. Bruyère, Rapport sur les fouilles de Deir el Médineh: 1930, pp. 72-115) is adjacent to the better-known tomb of the Chief Workman Inherkhau, and both tombs are richly decorated with painted funerary scenes on mud plaster. Four other examples of wooden shabtis of Qaha are in the Walters Art Museum and an example in the Louvre was recently featured in an exhaustive exhibition of the finds from the workmen’s community (see pp. 293-294 in G. Andreu Les artistes de Pharaon: Deir el-Médineh et la Vallée des Rois). Qaha was active during the reign of Ramesses II and was most likely responsible for directing work on that king’s tomb.