LATE PERIOD, 26TH DYNASTY, 664-525 B.C.

The nine bands of hieroglyphs around the front and sides of the body read: “Instructions of the Osiris, the Treasurer of the King of Lower Egypt Imhotep, born of Aset-weret, Justified. He says: O ye (lit. “these”) Ushebty, if the Osiris, the Treasurer of the King of Lower Egypt Imhotep, born of Aset-weret, is called in order to do any work which is done there in the Necropolis, and one is summoned, and an obstacle is implanted there as a man to his duty, ‘Behold, here am I,’ shall ye say, at any time, which is done there, to cultivate the fields, to irrigate the banks, to convey sand of the East to the West, ‘Behold, here am I’ shall ye say.”

Named after the renowned Third Dynasty architect Imhotep, who built the Step Pyramid complex for his pharaoh Djoser at Saqqara, this large and finely-modeled shabti of the Treasurer of the King of Lower Egypt Imhotep dates about two millennia later, and most likely derives from a monumental tomb at the same site. This Imhotep shares the important office of Treasurer of Lower Egypt with the famous Imhotep, who enjoyed a divine status by this era. Although the precise location of the tomb is not recorded, many examples of shabtis of this individual are known, including 32 examples in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo (see P. E. Newberry, Funerary Statuettes and Model Sarcophagi, pp. 133-136, 138-141 and 364-365). There are also some in private collections (see M. Page-Gasser and A.B. Wiese, Ägypten: Augenblicke der Ewigkeit: Unbekannte Schätze aus Schweizer Privatbesitz, no. 162C, p. 247.